The Brisbane River : Art, Ecology and Perception - How Can Painting Communicate and Question the Course and Impact of Human Activity over Time on the Ecology and Perception of the Brisbane River?
Author Stuerzl, Jennifer Ingrid
Published 2014
Thesis Type Thesis (Masters)
School Queensland College of Art
DOI https://doi.org/10.25904/1912/712
Copyright Statement The author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise.
Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/366581
Griffith Research Online https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
How Can Painting Communicate and Question the Course and Impact of Human Activity over Time on the Ecology and Perception of the Brisbane River?
Jennifer Ingrid Stuerzl
Bachelor of Arts, The University of Sydney Graduate Diploma in Education, Sydney Teacher’s College Graduate Diploma of Arts in Gallery Management, City Art Institute, Sydney
Queensland College of Art Arts, Education and Law Griffith University
Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Philosophy
October 2014
ABSTRACT
The ecology of the Brisbane River has been subject to damage caused by human activity from colonial times onwards. This damage has been studied scientifically, and is implicated in the Brisbane flood of 2011. I live and work in proximity to the Brisbane River, and it has been central to my practice as an artist. This close engagement with the river has led me to address the issue framed in the research question: how can painting communicate and question the course and impact of human activity over time on the ecology and perception of the Brisbane River? Investigation into Philip Rawson’s analysis of time in art, into the science of
Brisbane River ecology, into a range of eco-philosophies – from James Lovelock’s Gaia, to the eco-feminism of Val Plumwood – and into contemporary artists whose work reflects an interest in time and ecology, has been supplemented by theoretical and literary research into the Romantic vision of landscape in colonial painting, and into depiction, representation and landscape, as discussed by Michael Podro, Ernst Gombrich and Simon Schama. Six bodies of work were produced in the course of the research exploring different processes, from site-specific work to studio research in oil paint on different supports. Through the two most recent bodies of work, the 2010 paintings on Claybord and the 2011–12 paintings on copper, responding to the destruction of the 2011 Brisbane River flood, I propose a synergistic resolution to the research enquiry, arrived at by two different routes. The work, developed through research processes that have enriched my practice, examines the complex interaction between the apparent beauty of the river, its temporal rhythms and flow, and the human impositions on the Brisbane River ecosystem evident in water pollution, and loss of biodiversity. The construction of a subjective, fictive reality allows paradox, irony, historical reference and intuition to participate in a representation of ecological threat intended to challenge perceptions of the role of art and of responsibility for the environment.
Statement of Originality
This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself.
Jennifer Ingrid Stuerzl
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations iii
Acknowledgements xi
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW AND ARTISTIC CONTEXT 7
Time and Art 8 Ecology, Science and Art 16 Eco-philosophies 23 Art and Illusionism and Depiction 30 Landscape Painting 34
CHAPTER 2 STUDIO AND LOCATION RESEARCH PROCESSES 43
How the Research Question is Addressed by my Studio Practice 45 Studies in Light: The Formation of an Idea 46 Fragile Nature Series 2008 48 River Story Series 2009 57 River Traces Series 2009–2010 68 River with Quadrat 2009 74 River and Inundation Paintings 2010 77 Inundation Paintings 2011–2012 88 Research Processes: Overview 100
CHAPTER 3 A SYNERGISTIC MODEL 102
River and Inundation Series 2010: Oil on Claybord Paintings 103 Inundation Series 2011–12: Oil on Copper Paintings 108
CONCLUSION 120
Notes 127
Reference List 135
Picture Appendix 145
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
All illustrations reproduced are copyright protected: © producers, publishers, galleries, owners, or their agents, as appropriate.
Figure 1 Mandy Martin, This Eldorado of Pure Recognition a Desert of Pure Non- recognition, 1998, ochre, pigment, oil/linen 135 x 488 cm
Collection of the Artist. Source: http://www.museumsandgalleries.act. gov.au/cmag/documents/4013CMAG-MandyMartincatalogue_260x210_ wfinalTEXT_FA-WEB-SPREAD.pdf
Figure 2 Jem Southam, Whale Chine, Looking West, October 13, 1994, photograph
Source: Southam, 2005 (n.p.)
Figure 3 Jem Southam, Roseworthy Stream and the Red River Meet, Ponsbrittal, 1982/88, photograph
Source: Southam, 2005 (n.p.)
Figure 4 John Wolseley, Buried Painting near Port Augusta, photograph
Source: Grishin 2006, 125
Figure 5 John Wolseley, Buried Painting – Mt Gunson, 1991/92, watercolour, coloured pencil, pencil and charcoal on paper, 54 x 38 cm
Source: Grishin 2006, 124
Figure 6 John Wolseley, Bush Notations, Curra Moors with Regent Honeyeater (detail), 2002, carbonised wood, coloured pencil, watercolour, graphite on paper 121 x 546.5 cm
Source: Grishin 2006, 191
Figure 7 Eugène von Guérard, Fig Tree on the American Creek near Wollongong, NSW, 1861, oil on canvas, 83.7 x 66.1 cm
Source: Pullen 2011, 161
Figure 8 Eugène von Guérard Breakneck Gorge, Hepburn Springs, 1864, oil on canvas, 83.7 x 66.1 cm
Source: Pullen 2011, 199
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page iii Figure 9 John Wolseley, The Territories of Birds Remembering Gondwana and Laurasia (detail), 2001 watercolour on paper, 76 x 263 cm
Source: Grishin 2006, 179
Figure 10 Susanne McLean, Water Web, 2002, installation at the Powerhouse Museum, Brisbane
Source: photograph by Stephen Hobson
Figure 11 Mandy Martin Georgina Gidyea Waterhole, Cravens Peak, 2007, pigment/ ochres/acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm
Source: Robin et al 2011, 84
Figure 12 Mandy Martin Waddi Wood, Acacia Peuce near Birdsville, 2001, oil, ochre, pigment/linen, 90 x 330 cm
Source: Martin et al 2002, 39
Figure 13 Mandy Martin, Red Ochre Cove, 1988, oil on linen, 285 x 121 cm
Source: Hayne 1990, 220
Figure 14 Isaac Walter Jenner, Hamilton Reach, 1885, oil on wood panel, 21.7 x 52.4 cm
Source: Fry 1994, 45
Figure 15 Isaac Walter Jenner, On the Edge of the Swamp, Norman Creek 1889, oil on canvas 24.7 x 40 cm
Source: Fry 1994, 55
Figure 16 William Buelow Gould (1801–53), River Scene, ca. 1827–53, oil on tin,
15.2 x 20.9 cm
Source: Darby 1980, 96 (dating note: Gould arrived in Australia in 1827 and died there in 1853)
Figure 17 Eugène von Guérard, Tower Hill, 1855, oil on canvas, 68.6 x 122 cm
Source: Pullen 2011, 115
Figure 18 Jennifer Stuerzl, Study in Light 13: Indooroopilly Bridge, May 5 pm, 2006, 30.5 x 20.5 cm
Figure 19 Jennifer Stuerzl, Study in Light 1: Indooroopilly Reach, March 6 pm, 2006, 30.5 x 20.5 cm
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page iv Figure 20 Jennifer Stuerzl, Study in Light 7: Indooroopilly Reach, March 6 pm, 2006, 30.5 x 20.5 cm
Figure 21 Jennifer Stuerzl, Study in Light 8: Water, Earth and Sky, July 3 pm, 2006, 30.5 x 20.5 cm
Figure 22 Jennifer Stuerzl, Study in Light 5: Towards Indooroopilly Bridge, July 3 pm, 2006, 30.5 x 20.5 cm
Figure 23 Jennifer Stuerzl, Study in Light 6: Indooroopilly Reach, January 9 pm, 2006, 30.5 x 20.5 cm
Figure 24 Jennifer Stuerzl, Study of the Littoral Edge, 2008, sponging and stencilling techniques, oil on cotton canvas, one of two 30.5 x 20.5 cm
Figure 25 Jennifer Stuerzl, Study of the Littoral Edge, 2008, sgraffito technique, oil on canvas, one of two, 30.5 x 20.5 cm
Figure 26 Jennifer Stuerzl, Journal Sketch, 2008, pencil on paper
Figure 27 Jennifer Stuerzl, Fragile Nature: Song of the River, 2008, oil on polyester canvas, 50 x 150 cm
Figure 28 Jennifer Stuerzl, Experimental Study (diptych), 2008, oil and shellac on cotton canvas, 30 x 20 cm
Figure 29 Jennifer Stuerzl, Journal Mixed Media Study, 2008, acrylic, pencil, watercolour on paper
Figure 30 Jennifer Stuerzl, Journal Sketch, 2008, pencil on paper
Figure 31 Jennifer Stuerzl, Journal Sketch, 2008, pencil on paper
Figure 32 Jennifer Stuerzl, Night River 1, 2008, oil on polyester canvas, 167.5 x 45 cm
Figure 33 J.A.M.Whistler, Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Old Battersea Bridge, 1873, oil on canvas, 66.6 x 50.2 cm. Tate Gallery, London
Source: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/whistler-nocturne-blue-and- gold-old-battersea-bridge-n01959
Figure 34 Jennifer Stuerzl, Fragile Nature 1, 2008, oil on polyester canvas, 19 x 180 cm
Figure 35 Jennifer Stuerzl, Fragile Nature 3, 2008, collage and oil paint on polyester canvas, 19 x 180 cm
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page v Figure 36 Jennifer Stuerzl, Fragile Nature: Nocturne in Green Water, Mangroves and Light, 2008, oil paint on polyester canvas, 182.5 x 30 cm
Figure 37 John Wolseley, Upside-down Flowers Leptosema Chambersii, 1982, watercolour, pencil and found ochres on paper, 102 x 65 cm
Source: Grishin 2006, 54
Figure 38 Jennifer Stuerzl, Brisbane River, Partly Submerged Tree Trunk, Wivenhoe Dam, 2009, photograph
Figure 39 Jennifer Stuerzl, Brisbane River, Native Callistemon and Eucalypts, Wivenhoe Dam, 2009, photograph
Figure 40 Map of the Upper Brisbane Catchment (Google Maps 2009)
Figure 41 Map of the Lower Brisbane River: including Colleges Crossing, Indooroopilly, and Wivenhoe Dam (Google Maps 2012)
Figure 42 Yvonne Audette, Violin Concerto in D Major, 2003, gouache and ink, 53 x 36 cm
Source: Heathcote et al 2003, 236
Figure 43 Jennifer Stuerzl, River Story 1, 2009, oil paint and metallic oil paint, 182.5 x 46 cm
Figure 44 Jennifer Stuerzl, River Story: Red Wave, Callistemons and Eucalypts 2, 2009, oil and metallic oil on polyester, 182.5 x 30 cm
Figure 45 Jennifer Stuerzl, Journal Sketch of Callistemon, 2008, pencil on paper
Figure 46 Jennifer Stuerzl, Journal Sketch of Water Hyacinth, 2008, pencil on paper
Figure 47 Jennifer Stuerzl, River Story: Callistemon, Eucalypt, Mullet and Turtles, 2009, oil paint and metallic oil paint on polyester canvas, 182.5 x 30 cm
Figure 48 Jennifer Stuerzl, River Story: Past and Present, 2009, oil paint and metallic oil paint on polyester canvas, 50.5 x 137 cm
Figure 49 Paul Klee, The Legend of the Nile, 1937, pastel on cotton on coloured pastel on burlap, 69 x 61cm
Source: Düchting 2008, 82
Figure 50 Jennifer Stuerzl, River Story: Deep River 1, 2009, oil paint and metallic oil paint on polyester canvas 61 x 30 cm
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page vi Figure 51 Jennifer Stuerzl, River Story: Deep River 4, 5 (diptych), 2009, oil on polyester, 40 x 80 cm
Figure 52 Jennifer Stuerzl, River Traces 2, 2010, polyester canvas submerged in water at the Brisbane River’s littoral edge
Figure 53 Jennifer Stuerzl, River Traces (details), 2010, polyester canvas with graphite and sediment
Figure 54 Jennifer Stuerzl, River with Quadrat 1, Upper Reaches with Cow Hoof Print, Near Linville, 2009
Figure 55 Jennifer Stuerzl, River with Quadrat 2, Wivenhoe Dam with Tree Stump, 2009
Figure 56 Jennifer Stuerzl, River with Quadrat 3, Indooroopilly Reach, 2009
Figure 57 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2010, oil on Claybord, 40.5 x 30.5 cm
Figure 58 Jennifer Stuerzl, Sequence of Sixteen Paintings, 2010, oil on Claybord
Figure 59 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on Claybord, 40.5 x 30.5 cm
Figure 60 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on Claybord, 40.5 x 30.5 cm
Figure 61 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on board, 110 x 90 cm
Figure 62 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on board, 110 x 90 cm
Figure 63 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on board, 90 x 110 x 90 cm
Figure 64 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on board, 110 x 90 cm
Figure 65 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2010, oil on Claybord, 40.5 x 30.5 cm
Figure 66 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on Claybord, 40.5 x 30.5 cm
Figure 67 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on Claybord, 40.5 x 30.5 cm
Figure 69 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on Claybord, 40.5 x 30 cm
Figure 70 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on Claybord, 40.5 x 30 .5 cm
Figure 71 Jennifer Stuerzl, Night River, 2010, oil on Claybord, 40.5 x 30.5 cm
Figure 72 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper 10 x 12 cm
Figure 73 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper 10 x 12 cm
Figure 74 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper 10 x12 cm
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page vii Figure 75 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper 10 x12 cm
Figure 76 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, photograph
Figure 77 Jennifer Stuerzl Inundation Stormy Sky, 2011, oil on copper, 10 x 12 cm
Figure 78 Jennifer Stuerzl Inundation, 2011, photograph
Figure 79 John Constable Vale of Dedham 1828, oil on canvas, 145 x 122 cm
Source: Rosenthal 1983, 184
Figure 80 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation Journal Sketches, 2011, pencil on paper
Figure 81 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation with Debris, 2011, photograph
Figure 82 Jennifer Stuerzl, Journal Drawing, 2011
Figure 83 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation with Debris, 2011, oil on copper, 10 x 12 cm
Figure 84 Arthur Boyd, Fitzroy Falls, 1976, oil on copper, 30.1 x 20.9 cm
Source: McKenzie 2000, 172
Figure 85 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation with Piers, oil on copper, 2011, 10 x 12 cm
Figure 86 Jennifer Stuerzl, Night Inundation, oil on copper, 2011, 10 x12 cm
Figure 87 John Constable, Wivenhoe Park, Essex 1816, Oil on canvas, 56.1 x 101.2 cm
Source: Gombrich 1987, 35
Figure 88 Jennifer Stuerzl, 2011, Inundation in Green, oil on copper, 12 x 10 cm
Figure 89 Jennifer Stuerzl, 2011, Inundation, oil on copper, 12 x 10 cm
Figure 90 Jennifer Stuerzl, 2011, Inundation, oil on copper, 12 x 10 cm
Figure 91 Jennifer Stuerzl, series of four River Inundation photographs, 2011
Figure 92 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 12 x 25 cm
Figure 93 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 10 x 12 cm
Figure 94 Jennifer Stuerzl, Night River Inundation, 2012, oil on copper, 10 x 12 cm
Figure 95 Jennifer Stuerzl, Night River Inundation, 2012, oil on copper, 10 x 12 cm
Figure 96 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on Claybord, 30.5 x 45.5 cm
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page viii Figure 97 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on board, 90 x 110 cm
Figure 98 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation 1, 2010, oil on Claybord, 30.5 x 45.5 cm
Figure 99 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation 2, 2010, oil on Claybord, 30.5 x 45.5 cm
Figure 100 William Buelow Gould, Yellow Eye Mullet from The Sketchbook of Fishes, 1832, watercolour
Source: Darby 1980, 100
Figure 101 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on Claybord, 30.5 x 45.5 cm
Figure 102 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 12 x 10cm
Figure 103 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 12 x 10cm
Figure 104 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 12 x 10cm
Figure 105 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 12 x 10cm
Figure 106 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 12 x 10cm
Figure 107 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on board, 110 x 90 cm
Figure 108 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 12 x 10 cm (duplicate: juxtaposition to illustrate relative scale; for full size original, see figure 106)
Figure 109 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 12 x 10 cm
Figure 110 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 12 x 10 cm
Figure 111 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 12 x 10 cm
Figure 112 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 12 x 10 cm
Figure 113 John Constable, Study for View of the Stour near Dedham, 1822, oil on canvas, 129.5 x 185.4 cm
Source: Rosenthal 1983, 140
Figure 114 John Constable, View of the Stour near Dedham, 1822, oil on canvas, 129.5 x 188 cm
Source: Rosenthal 1983, 141
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to acknowledge and thank the people who have assisted my research. I appreciate the support and encouragement given and the opportunity to work with a range of people as part of the research process.
In particular, my thanks go to Ross Woodrow, Stephen Hobson and George Petelin for sharing their knowledge of theory and practice and for their support and guidance during the research process.
My thanks go to Piers Rawson for his encouragement and assistance in reviewing my research with his knowledge of fine art and Philip Rawson’s theory of Art and Time.
My thanks go to Mary Lincoln, Brian Lincoln, Andrew Peachey, Jennifer Andrews, Ben Byrne, Keith Griffin, Catriona Gulliver, Miriam Wong, Jennifer Magoffin, Jennifer Stackhouse, Bruce Heiser and Kath Heiser for their encouragement and practical assistance at significant times during the research.
My thanks go to my parents Alison and Gottfried Stuerzl, to my sisters Bronwyn Stuerzl and Meg Rofe, and to my extended family and Ernst Seyfried for their support and encouragement throughout my life.
My particular thanks go to my partner David Bedford for imparting his knowledge of ecology and botany and an appreciation of nature. To Alexander Bedford, Xanthe Bedford and Tabitha Helms for their conversations on art and life at any time of day or night. All have enriched and inspired my life journey and encouraged my research in many ways.
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page xi
INTRODUCTION
How can painting communicate and question the course and impact of human activity over time on the ecology and perception of the Brisbane River?
The research sets out to investigate how painting can communicate and question the course and impact of human activity over time on the ecology of the Brisbane River – and how the representation and perception of the river by contemporary audiences may be affected as a result. To represent the Brisbane River in the medium of painting, in order to address the ecological issues related to human impact on the ecology, my research explores a range of media and styles in six bodies of work. The research relates directly to the location where I live and work, and relates both to the heritage of the colony of Brisbane and to the natural heritage of the local ecology. To perform the research I have investigated time, ecology and perception, and in response I have adjusted my use of media, format and style through six distinct bodies of work. The studio research examines in depth the subtle complexities of the human impact on river ecology. The research question has contemporary significance relating to our cultural relationship to and individual perception of nature, and these factors can affect ecology through the way social and political views determine our reactions towards nature. The question has immediate relevance because painting can be used as a method to construct images to engage the viewer in significant issues. My research into the human impact on ecology in a specific location of the Brisbane River is relevant to a greater understanding of the interconnections within ecosystems and the human impact on ecology, both locally and globally. The research addresses some of the issues and paradoxes in the effects of human activity on nature. These include the resilience – yet fragility – of nature, the effects of climate change, and the complex interactions that occur in human-modified and domesticated ecosystems. For example, my images of mangrove seedlings and fish allude
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page 1 to the paradox of nature’s creation and renewal, yet also to the depletion and reduced biodiversity that has occurred since colonial settlement. Such ecological elements are contrasted with the human imposition on nature seen in accumulated mud and reduced water quality, urban debris and riverine structures. The earlier paintings explore the resources of the medium to draw attention to the wonderment and complexity of life, and to the apparent beauty of the riverscape: so the depiction and amplified brilliance of green water as well as beauty, evokes the green algal bloom of eutrophication in polluted waterways. The fundamental interconnection between humans and nature is interrogated in the 2011–12 paintings, executed after the catastrophic flooding of 2011, that reference experience, memories and changes to River ecology over time. The investigation into art and time, ecology, media and representation in the research paintings establishes a connection with traditions of landscape painting and contemporary interpretations of landscape, and in the final two bodies of work engages the viewer with issues that are significant to the sustainability of life. Within the work, reference to traditional and colonial styles of landscape painting leads the present research paintings to develop a dialogue between perceptions of past river ecology and the contemporary interpretation of the subject in painting. Through its enquiry into representation and materiality, the research draws on the theories of Ernst Gombrich and Michael Podro, and explores colonialism and the traditions of landscape painting in order to seek a resolution in contemporary art practice. The research indicates ways that in painting, media and style can be used to question cultural perspectives, such as the perception of the relationship between nature and culture. The enquiry has evolved through several bodies of work that respond to and consider the complexity of the human connections with, and impact on, river ecology within the conceptual framework of time. The Brisbane River is a constant reference in my art practice and it is the flux and flow of the river that feeds and renews my continuing interest in it. I contemplate the river and its day-to-day nuances, and reflect on how the river changes over time. This
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page 2 day-to-day relationship is heightened by my experience and memories of the river and the theoretical and studio research that informs my paintings. The ecology of the Brisbane River in the twenty-first century is very different from that of the early nineteenth century. The legacy of the colonial settlement of the Brisbane River has shown the fragility of nature and how vulnerable it is to human impact. Scientist Di Tarte, the Director of Healthy Waterways (quoted in Burke 2007, 2–4), has described the changes that human impact has had on the river. In my own discussions with University of Queensland scientists Norm Duke and Jock Mackenzie (Duke and Mackenzie pers. comm., 26 July 2011) after the 2011 January flood, they noted the stress on river ecology from human activity. The ecological issues facing the River’s sustainability reflect at a local level, and in detail, national and global concerns for the earth, its atmosphere, water quality and biodiversity. The writings of Tim Flannery (2005, 17–18), who advocates a holistic worldview and the perception of the earth as an interconnected organism, have further informed my research. His view is itself in part influenced by James Lovelock’s Gaia theory, as well as by concerns for the global issues of atmospheric pollution, rising sea levels and the warming waters of climate change. The sum of these concerns demonstrates that riverine ecosystems, like other habitats, will not necessarily survive in their present state; for these reasons riverine ecosystems are topical, reflecting the extent of the global ecological crisis. The impact of human activity on the Brisbane River since colonial settlement is extensive, and it has had a serious impact on the littoral edge and the river catchments. Before colonial settlement the river’s ecology of fish species and vegetation was diverse (Burke 2007, 3), and the middle and upper reaches of the river were a seasonally flowing, fresh watercourse rather than a tidal estuary.1 Local historian Helen Gregory (1996, 2), in her history of the river, discusses the traditional Brisbane River landowners, the Yugarabul language group, who valued the river, which they knew as “Mairwar” – the indigenous relationship with the river continues today through the Yugarabul’s native title claim over the River. Gregory (1996, 14) states that Aboriginal modifications to the land and
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page 3 river system were small in comparison with the effects of white incursion. She suggests that Europeans had a different perception of the use of the land, river and its resources from that of the Yugarabul language group, and that since white settlement the River has changed markedly. Some of the many examples of human intervention discussed by Gregory, (1996, 38–52) are the dredging, damming and blasting that began in the 1860s to mould and train the river, to deepen and improve the channel for shipping. She believes that this initiated the intense human intervention that changed the Brisbane River and its tributary creeks. Already, by 1893, there is a painted record of severe infrastructure damage caused by a major flooding of the Brisbane River: Indooroopilly Bridge after the 1893 Flood by James Laurence Watts (1849–1925) depicts onlookers viewing the remnants of the bridge, with its missing spans, and ferry traffic on the water (exhibited in Floodlines at the State library of Queensland, April–August 2012).2 Because prior to the colonial enterprise the Brisbane River preserved its natural state, and because my cultural heritage is not Aboriginal, my research focuses on the impact of human activity since colonial settlement and how this can be represented in painting. The richness of the beauty and natural cycles of the Brisbane River are juxtaposed within my research paintings and associated media with representation of human activity and its effects on river ecology. These effects include: the River’s reduced water quality due to mining, farming and pollution; human-induced inundations arising from tidal flow, following damming of the river; and a degraded habitat caused by land clearing, gardening and building at the littoral edge. The result has been a reduced range of plant and animal species, disrupted natural cycles of regeneration, and impoverished human connections with nature. My research in Chapter One assesses the impact of human activity over time as reflected in the fragile nature of the Brisbane River ecology, and draws on philosophies such as eco-feminism and the Gaia Theory. These philosophies refer to the concept of the organic earth and the inter-relation between all things in balance; and the disjuncture between this ideal and the reality of the destructive effect of humans upon it. The
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page 4 interaction between art and time, in the context of my research, is investigated by reference to Philip Rawson’s perspective (2005, 23–4) that time includes human experience and the complex threads of experiencing, remembering and anticipating, rather than existing as “a succession of spatial images”, a notion that reflects contemporary, scientific and Western cultural perspectives on time. In this light, the River is investigated through its various cycles, that in turn reflect the “river of time”, and individual experiences and memories of the River, its ecology, and the impact of human activity. My experiments with format, media and style, discussed in Chapter Two, are informed by theory research, particularly into representation and depiction, and developed with reference to traditional and contemporary arts practitioners. Guided by my literary and artistic research, the studio research examines how the research question can be addressed in painting. Arising from this research, and informed by experience and memory of location, my oil paintings from 2008–12 investigate how style and media can create a construct of the physical world that communicates some of the human impact on the river ecology. In parallel research, site-specific bodies of work include materials from site: traces of the River’s tidal flow and sediment, as well as found manufactured materials. The range of media and techniques employed here, along with extensive photographic documentation, has contributed to my conception of the effectiveness of painting in addressing the research question. It both contextualizes the direction of my main argument and opens possibilities for future development of my practice. The argument in Chapter Three considers the research processes that I applied to test and evaluate media and relationships of elements to find the most authentic resolution to the research question. The research processes employed for each body of work were developed in response to changes to the River ecology, in response to my evolving perception of the River as a result of these changes, and in response to the outcomes of each process following critical reflection and theoretical evaluation. The research culminated in two final bodies of work (the Claybord oil paintings of 2010 and the 2011–12 oil paintings on copper); these explore the role of materiality in engaging the viewer with the subject
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page 5 that is represented, and resolve the research question by constructing, compounding and amplifying motifs to create a complex image of river ecology that is responsive to time, ecology and shifting perceptions. This synergistic image seeks to articulate the apparent paradox of representing the River’s beauty and the cycles of nature, while conveying the effects of depletion and human intervention, to communicate the human impact on river ecology, and a perception of nature’s changing state that reference time’s complexity. The Conclusion proposes that the synergistic model exemplified in the two final bodies of work fulfils an authentic resolution to the terms of the research question: it demonstrates how representation of the Brisbane River, may through the creation of a fictive reality, offer an intuitive route to engage the viewer in complex issues. The Conclusion also suggests that the synergistic model may be open and transferable, extending the possibility of further research investigation into art, ecology and perception.
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page 6 CHAPTER ONE THE LITERATURE REVIEW AND ARTISTIC CONTEXT
The present study is directly rooted in my empirical experience as a practitioner. I have surveyed the wider literature and addressed in detail those aspects which I have found to be of direct relevance in advancing and challenging the development of my studio research. As its title suggests, this chapter performs the dual function of establishing a contemporary artistic context for my painting, especially in terms of shared concerns with time and flux, through investigating the work of artists practising in a rangeof media, from painting and photography, to video, installation and site-specific activities. Therefore, while there is a wide literature on mimesis, reception theory, the Sublime, and the back-story of the colonial illustration of newly-encountered flora and fauna, among other relevant topics that I have investigated, these are not themselves the main basis of my research. The literature review identifies a number of contemporary theories, philosophies and art practices that relate to my research and these are discussed in five sections. These are first: Time and Art; second: Ecology, Science and Art; third: Eco-philosophies, with particular reference to Suzi Gablik and Contemporary Practice; fourth: Art and Illusionism and Depiction; five: Landscape Painting. I relate these to a core group or canon of artists whose work demonstrates or operates within these cultural-philosophical frameworks. Central to my research is a perception of the significance of relationships between nature and culture, by which I mean how – in our artistic expression, in our language, in our literature and political judgments, and in our scientific endeavors – civilization and history determine how we value the land and environment. These relationships can determine the way humans have impacted on river ecology over time and how this can be represented in painting. The enquiry finds areas of continuity between contemporary theories, eco-philosophies and practice, representation and depiction, and the genre of landscape painting. Picture construction within the Romantic painting tradition connects
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page 7 the traditional painting of John Constable, and colonial artists Eugène von Guérard, Isaac Walter Jenner and William Buelow Gould, with a contemporary need to elicit recognition of the subject through imaginative interpretation and the construction of a fictive reality, rather than a literal copy of reality. This mode can be used to convey a message about the human impact on ecosystems over time. Moreover, imaginative interpretation evokes a subjective response that includes feelings, experience, myths, and memories of human connections with nature, ideas that have persisted in painting and the landscapes discussed by Schama. Finally, creative stories, as proposed by Plumwood, can be seen as offering a way to remake the rational worldview by developing interconnections and acknowledging difference.
Time and Art The concept of time is significant to the investigation that informs my art practice. Time is experienced in the circadian rhythms of the River and its changing states seasonally, and through the history of the River as documented, experienced and remembered. The representation of time in painting can produce works of art that investigate experience, memory, history and myth, rather than record a scene or objects literally or from one point in time. This is investigated in Philip Rawson’s book Art and Time (2005).3 Different definitions of “time” have established its role within my practice. A definition of time that is relevant to my early 2008–2009 painting is “To mark the rhythm or measure of, as in music” (Arthur Delbridge 1985, 1357). The rhythms of nature and music depicted in painting can be interpreted as evoking a holistic view of nature and the human connections with it; this can be found in the paintings of Paul Klee – “music showed him ‘the innermost’ essence of nature” (Hajo Düchting 2008, 88) – and of John Wolseley and Yvonne Audette. Starhawk, (quoted in Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein 1990, 78) provides another definition of time that supports a holistic worldview: “From a pagan perspective, there is no end of time. Time is a cycle, and cycles come around and they go around and come back again.” The representation of time in art can change, depending
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page 8 on many factors, including cultural and historic perceptions of time, and the experience of time that the artist and viewer bring to the work. One could infer from this that time as a concept has different associations for different people and cultures, depending on their past experiences and perceptions of nature. The examples we are most familiar with are the systems that mechanistic cultures impose on society and nature to regulate life; so in Western culture the scientific calculation of clock time, a linear and directional concept, has determined our whole idea of time.4 However, Rawson (2005, 23) argues that time can be perceived as complex, and he states that time encompasses “experiencing, remembering and anticipating”, rather than being a “single category idea”. Rawson (2005, 27–28) also discusses the “water image of time” and says, “some Western people still refer to ‘the river of time’ as a way of seeing life outside the static abstract-general view of form which has dominated our thinking since ancient times”. I propose that in order to understand the Brisbane River comprehensively, one needs to transcend the simple image of time as a linear progression of separate entities and incidents, encountered in sequence. Instead, we could engage with the River through experience and memories of place, with a perception of the cyclical rhythms of nature and the interconnections that form an integrated experience of river time, not applied in an abstract or generalised way, but directly in the specific form of the Brisbane River. Rawson discusses time as complex, because it actually operates in space – and as such incorporates all the complexity of visual and tactile sensory experience that makes up an integrated whole. In the context of the Brisbane River, the totality of the river could include the water, light, smell, life, sounds, wetness and textures, and the experience of flooding. Also contributing to this complex view are our perceptions of the River, which have changed with the passing of historical time, and our memory of the River, and knowledge and experience of its seasonal and circadian rhythms. In art, Rawson states (2005, 44–45), time imagery may operate on four levels, where at each level different glyphs and symbols combine to produce an overall effect; and significant, profound art, in varying degrees, contains all four levels. The four main
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page 9 levels that Rawson defines are: first, lived time, during which the work is produced and the time span for which it continues to exist; second, reading or performance time: the span of lived time taken by the viewer to experience and interpret the work; third, horizon time, where past and future form two implied time-horizons between which movements or events depicted notionally take place; fourth, time as region, which is a transcendent mythical time, being an enduring present “outside time” where the events of horizon time take place, independently of any empirical passing moment. An understanding of the representation of time in art is important for the interpretation of art works, because of what this signifies for understanding an individual and cultural worldview and perception of nature. In the case of my practice the perception is of a cyclic, organic view of nature; this key premise creates the possibility for me to address in painting, through juxtaposition, the effects of the mechanistic ordering of nature and culture, evidenced by such imposed systems as the binomial taxonomic classification of species, and regulated clock time.5 Many aspects of time in art proposed by Rawson can be seen in the work of artists Mandy Martin, Jem Southam and John Wolseley, whose work has informed my practice. Each artist investigates time, ecology and landscape through different media and modes of representation. Mandy Martin depicts a broad expanse of time, through her reference to historic perceptions of landscape, myth and metaphor, which articulates a conflict between the beauty and ecological significance of the Australian landscape and the search for identity. Reference to time is particularly evident in her painting This Eldorado of Pure Recognition a Desert of Pure Non-recognition, 1998 (figure 1).
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page 10
Figure 1 Mandy Martin, This Eldorado of Pure Recognition a Desert of Pure Non-recognition, 1998, ochre, pigment, oil/linen 135 x 488 cm
In the painting, Martin evokes time as region (as defined by Rawson, above),where past and future time coexist within one single painting. In Martin’s work depth of time is implicated by connections with nature, through experience of site, geological time, mythology, and through reference to the Romantic Sublime, and how Western cultures viewed the Australian landscape.6 Martin’s knowledge of the journals of the explorer and Surveyor General, Sir Thomas Mitchell, his reference to many Romantic artists including seventeenth-century Salvator Rosa, Nicholas Poussin, John Martin and Claude Lorrain, informs her work.7 Mandy Martin is quoted in Amanda Rowell (2002, 1)
I use many of these sources as a counterpoint for my own narrative which seeks a contemporary reworking of issues of identity, possession of land and indigenousness.
Her engagement with past styles of painting, the human history of occupation of and identity with the land, and the contemporary landscape, draws together different time frames into this single painting. Martin refers to a vast geological time span by the representation of rocks and an ancient riverbed subject to the effects of weathering and change. This slow time frame recalls the river of time: Rowell (2002, 1) states
Martin’s large canvases bring together slow geological time – ancient sedimentation, solidified eruptions, eroded cliffs – and ephemeral meteorological phenomena – low mists, blushing skies, sleeting rain.
Multiple time frames converge in Martin’s rendering of the landscape in This Eldorado of Pure Recognition a Desert of Pure Non-recognition, related to human occupation,
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page 11 encounters with and memories of the land, and experiences of geological time and meteorological extremes. This constructs a subjective and imaginative representation that engages the viewer in an encounter with a landscape that creates and interrogates human associations with nature over time. A concern with human occupation of the landscape through history is also evident in the photographs of Jem Southam, a contemporary English landscape photographer who investigates complex arrangements of the natural environment in a different medium from Martin’s paintings, but with a similar reference to time as region. Southam’s photographs capture within the contemporary landscape the processes of change over geological time, and the history of human occupation seen by the traces left in the landscape.8 It is in the concept and depth of his understanding and connection with history, myth and the myriad of associations related to the changing perception of landscape that his work informs the investigation into time in my research. Of particular interest are Southam’s interpretation of nature and the history of landscape in his Rockfalls series of photographs. Southam’s work evokes the changes over geological time to the natural rock faces in his photographic series, taken over a period of years between 1994 and 2000. This series includes Whale Chine, Looking West, October 13, 1994 (figure 2) andWhale Chine Looking East, October 14. In these works he revisits the same subject and records the changes over time in a series of images. This approach resonates with my practice of responding to the Brisbane River’s changes over time in a particular location.
Figure 2 Jem Southam, Whale Chine, Looking West, October 13, 1994, photograph
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page 12 Southam’s photographs of Whale Chine depict the creep of the earth as it slumps and falls from the rock face on the Isle of Wight; the photographs seem to capture time as region because he represents the workings of geological time (both within the single image as well as the series), the lived time of the creation of the image, and horizon time (indefinite past as well as a yet-to-be-defined future) to create an enduring present. In Southam’s Red River photographs, changes through time are expressed by contrast between nature that is modified by human intervention, in the form of mining and gardening, and other states of nature that are more pristine. The Red River, Southam (2005) explains
. . . is a tinning stream in the west of Cornwall. It is only six or seven miles long and is never more than a few feet wide, but for hundreds of years, the water of the river has been diverted and used to aid the extraction of tin and copper ore from the mines in the valley.
Figure 3 Jem Southam, Roseworthy Stream and the Red River Meet, Ponsbrittal, 1982/88, photograph
Nature’s different states are documented in the “second nature” of the polluted Red River, compared to the “first nature” of the more pristine Roseworthy Stream (figure 3).9 Multiple time frames are implicit in the confluence of two states determined separately by past history, upstream. Through his process of working and choice of subjects, Southam engages directly with temporal aspects of nature’s dynamic state, revealed in geological time, in the processes of flow and inundation (Southam’s Lynmouth series, 1998–1999), as well as in the traces left over time of human occupation, mining and the moulding of nature. There are resonances in Southam’s work with my own practice, both in his
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page 13 concern with the expression of time, and in his application of this to commentate on river history, river time, and our memories and experience of rivers. John Wolseley is another artist who engages with complex notions of time, accumulated from experience, scientific theory, and participation with the landscape. He includes in his painting the slow processes of changes to nature over time; artistic collaborations with nature; reference to geological time, and changes to the earth and species; and records of species of flora and fauna that recall traditions of natural history drawings.10 It is the diversity of his sources and processes, each with their own component associations of time, that in the final work give access to the rich experience of time as region. Stylistically, Wolseley creates images that integrate different time frames into a single work by layering images and mark making; his approach to art is as a process recorded over time and made in collaboration with nature. Wolseley (quoted in Grishin 2006, 187) states that his work seeks alternative ways to imagine the land, and in doing so creates a parallel landscape construct distinct from traditional conventions.11 This construct reflects the depth and originality of Wolseley’s connection with time, for by collaborating with nature, he also connects with cyclic and organic time, rather than engaging with Western time and space constructs. Wolseley conceives the artist as part of nature: in his process of image making he will bury drawings (figure 4 demonstrates the process), record the rhythms of his moving through the landscape, include the prints of animals across his work, and incorporate on-location frottage and natural pigments into his paintings. As these processes in many cases produce unpredictable marks upon his surfaces, Wolseley’s method introduces the element of chance, a fundamental way of establishing the workings of time within the fabric of the work. He engages with and records the organic and ephemeral, the micro and macro aspects of site, and his response is further recorded in journals, which in turn can also be incorporated into some paintings, as seen in Buried Painting – Mt Gunson, 1991–92 (figure 5).
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page 14
Figure 4 John Wolseley, Buried Painting near Port Augusta, 1991/92, photograph Figure 5 John Wolseley, Buried Painting – Mt Gunson, 1991/92, watercolour, coloured pencil, pencil and charcoal on paper, 54 x 38 cm
In Wolseley’s work Bush Notations, Curra Moors with Regent Honeyeater (detail, figure 6) he records the random marks made as he moves through the landscape in the Royal National Park after a bush fire in 2002, combined with accurately depicted zoological and botanical species: it seems a micro and macro view of nature with multiple view points and time frames are presented.
Figure 6 John Wolseley Bush Notations, Curra Moors with Regent Honeyeater (detail), 2002, carbonised wood, coloured pencil, watercolour, graphite on paper 121 x 546.5 cm
Wolseley’s work therefore carries the varied marks and time traces of its making (lived time), and a more complex horizon time which references the past of its component parts and may contain potential futures as well – the long history of rocks and minerals may also imply future endurance; natural organic materials can suggest cyclical return through growth and decay; traces of journeying signify travel through time, a process with
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page 15 a beginning and possible future trajectory; zoological description can evoke a specific period when this activity was at its height, and may also comment on the finite destiny of the species featured. The time as region arising from such diverse and resonant resources can take on a mythical, even spiritual character. Martin, Southam and Wolseley demonstrate the potential significance of time in contemporary practice, in ways that have enriched my research into this area. They also reveal a contemporary view of nature’s interconnections, and concern with the impact of human activity on nature. How this concept of interconnection and wholeness is developed in my research, to extend my understanding of the human impact on ecology over time, is addressed in my review of ecology, science, and art in contemporary literature.
Ecology, Science and Art A definition of ecology, a relatively new science, will help establish a framework for my research into the organic and holistic perception of nature that informs my paintings. This holistic worldview is informed by philosophies such as organicism and nineteenth- century Romanticism (including reference to the perception of nature in Eugène von Guérard’s painting), and by the tensions surrounding ecological conservation and cultural advancement discussed by Tim Bonyhady. Therefore I take into account contemporary ecological views, such as scientist Tim Flannery’s perceptions about the Earth, and eco- philosophies, including James Lovelock’s Gaia Theory and Alfred Russel Wallace’s holistic view of nature. The theories of Suzi Gablik are considered in the context of artists’ participation with nature and society to promote community awareness of ecological issues. Contemporary artists who engage in this approach, such as John Wolseley, Bonita Ely, Mandy Martin and Susanne McLean are reviewed to establish their individual approach to media and methods in creating art that connects with a holistic worldview. This overview encompasses a consideration of Eco-feminism, and how contemporary practice – through its ecological concerns, through dialogue with scientists, and through participation – can develop work that has an environmentalist-reformist agenda.12
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page 16 Ecology is defined by Walter and Dorothy Schwartz (1987, 125) in this way:
Ecology is like a crystal prism; its facets illuminate wholistic thinking. As a science it describes the interaction of animate and inanimate forces; as a philosophy it seeks to interpret the place of man and other animals within nature. The facet of environmentalism signifies care and commitment to protect the earth and with the concept of wilderness, modern ecology offers us a deeply needed link with our remote origins. And the vision of Gaia, half scientific, half poetic, shows the whole earth as a living organism.
From this it can be seen that the holistic worldview, discussed by Schwartz and Schwartz, is one which includes an awareness of the complexity of life and non-dualistic relationships; it allies the interconnection of human and non-human with an awareness of the difference between all things, a view that can promote respect, understanding and partnerships. The link between ecology and holism is further expounded by eco-feminist philosopher Carolyn Merchant (1990, 293)
The most important example of holism today is provided by the science of ecology. Although ecology is a relatively new science, its philosophy of nature, holism, is not. Historically, holistic presuppositions about nature have been assumed by communities of people who have succeeded in living in equilibrium with their environment. The idea of cyclic processes, of the interconnectedness of all things, and the assumption that nature is active and alive are fundamental to the history of human thought. No element of an interlocking cycle can be removed without the collapse of the cycle. The parts themselves take their meaning from the whole.
My research into a holistic worldview therefore also connects with ecological awareness, in terms of my research surrounding the sustainability of the health of the Brisbane River, its water quality and biodiversity. River time and the cyclic, organic perception of time have direct association with the holistic interconnections within nature. Merchant (1990, 100) sees Ecology as a philosophy of nature with roots in organicism: the idea that the cosmos is an organic entity, growing and developing from within, in an integrated unity of structure and function. As Merchant (1990, 100) writes:
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page 17 Organicismic thought contributed to the rudimentary philosophical framework out of which ecological science and the conservation of natural resources developed. The Romantics of the early nineteenth century, reacting against the mechanism of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, turned back to the organismic idea of a vital animating principal binding together the whole created world. American Romantics such as Emerson looked to wilderness as a source of spiritual insight, while Thoreau found evidence of a vital life permeating in rocks, ponds and mountains in pagan and American Indian animism. Such influences were an inspiration to the preservation movement lead by John Muir in the late nineteenth century and to such early ecologists as Frederick Clements, whose theory of plant succession held that plant communities grew, developed and matured much like an individual organism.13
A holistic view is also reflected in the philosophy of German natural scientist Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) who influenced the nineteenth-century Austrian-Australian colonial painter Eugène von Guérard’s response to nature.14 Christopher Heathcote (2001, 29) identifies the influence of Immanuel Kant’s (1724-1804) concept of unity-in-diversity in von Humboldt’s view of nature as interconnected – as opposed to the Linnaean binomial taxonomic classification of species in isolation from their environment.15 According to Ruth Pullen (2011, 14–15), von Guérard “saw nature as a harmonious, ordered whole in which all aspects of the natural world were interrelated”. Von Guérard’s paintings are significant for my research because they confirm that a holistic perception of nature existed in art prior to the recent ecological revival of interest in the late twentieth and early-twenty-first century. Von Guérard’s painting Fig Tree on the American Creek near Woollongong, NSW 1861 (figure 7) demonstrates his holistic perception. Pullen (2011, 160) identifies in this painting a range of native species, such as sassafras, bangalow palms, and the fig tree interwoven with vines. She regards von Guérard (2011, 27) as contributing to the holistic perception of nature in colonial art
Implicit in the abstract geometry that unifies his compositions in which every blade of grass, every leaf, every mountain range is somehow interfused with a deep but contained energy or life force, is that most fundamental premise of Humboldtian thought, the idea that nature is “one great whole moved and animated by internal forces.”
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page 18 Figure 7 Eugène von Guérard, Fig Tree on the American Creek near Wollongong, NSW, 1861, oil on canvas, 83.7 x 66.1 cm
While the holistic view proposed by Merchant has its origins in pre-mechanistic cultures, it has also developed alongside the mechanistic perception of nature. At times the transition between the two philosophies has been graduated: Merchant (1990, 103) suggests that mechanistic philosophy has contributed to the science of ecology because ecology is based on the mathematical modelling of nature; therefore they cannot be regarded as mutually exclusive – nor can most philosophies be placed in one camp or the other. Similarly, the impression of a lack of environmental concern in colonial times is disputed by Tim Bonyhady (2000, 10), who argues that by the late nineteenth century, the difficulty lay in how to implement desired environmental ideals because of electoral pressure and short term individual interest in advancement, at the cost of long term collective benefits. Bonyhady (2000, 11) states that “the environmental aesthetic is as deeply embedded in the culture as is resistance to putting environmental ideals into practice”. He suggests that it was the lack of understanding and knowledge, and frequently the lack of ability to enforce legislation to protect the environment, that has resulted in the history of misuse and depletion that we see today. It is clear that despite any environmental concerns, the human impact on ecosystems
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page 19 has been massively destructive and continuous. In the colonial paintings of von Guérard this negative impact is recorded with the depiction of remnant forests and disturbance to the earth through mining, revealing the human impact on the ecology. However, in von Guérard’s paintings, the celebration of the advancement of wealth and engineering feats take precedence over nature’s preservation in some paintings, as seen in Breakneck Gorge, Hepburn Springs 1864, (figure 8).
Figure 8 Eugène von Guérard Breakneck Gorge, Hepburn Springs, 1864, oil on canvas, 83.7 x 66.1 cm
According to Pullen (2011, 27), by the 1860s the area near Breakneck Gorge was considered to be one of the picturesque sites of the region, contemporaries being largely impervious to the visible devastation caused by the mining and bridge construction. Offering a similar view, Bonyhady (1985, 78) argues that examples of the threat of human destruction of ecosystems are rare in colonial art, and cites Martens’ painting of Viaducts on the Descent to the Lithgow Valley, 1872: the railway construction is seen as an example of the evident destruction of nature, but also as a “triumph of colonial engineering”. Bonyhady seeks an explanation for the tensions in nature’s representation in the ambiguous use of imagery: the timber splitters in Cabbage-tree Forest, American Creek New South Wales 1867 are symbols for both progress and destruction (1985, 78–9). He says the text accompanying this lithograph was written by von Guérard with James Smith (who played an important role in establishing national parks in Victoria). “This text concluded that the destruction of the trees, although ‘unfortunate’, was necessary for the progress of settlement” (Bonyhady 1985, 78–9). A similar ambivalence is evident in a narrative of John Oxley’s expedition to
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page 20 survey Port Curtis and Morton Bay, by John Unaike (cited in Rivière 1998, 82–83), who was a volunteer on the expedition and described the magnificence of the Brisbane River and its vegetation’s usefulness for colonial settlers:
This magnificent river. . . was about half a mile wide and eight fathoms deep: and from an eminence near it they obtained a view of its course, meandering for nearly thirty miles through rich flat country, clothed with large timber, among which was an unknown species of pine in considerable abundance, which from its size and apparent excellent quality of wood, will probably prove a valuable acquisition to the colony, it being well calculated for ships’ spars.
The holistic view and interest in conserving our ecosystems are evident in colonial and modern society alongside the desire for advancement of culture, and a tension has always existed between these two positions. This tension shows in the paintings of von Guérard in the ambiguity of imagery of both progress and destruction, seen in the mines, bridges, and timber splitters whose advancement is at the expense of nature’s preservation. Colonial artists engage with the landscape in a different way from contemporary artists. Although both colonial and contemporary societies, and artists, are aware of a holistic worldview, colonial artists seem not to represent the threat of the human impact on nature (Bonyhady 1985, 78) whereas contemporary artists such as Bonita Ely and Susanne McLean do interrogate the human destruction of ecosystems. Despite the continuing destruction of ecosystems, contemporary theories about a holistic worldview, sustainability of biodiversity, and climate change, indicate how such ideas have continued to be of concern. The concepts of a holistic worldview and the interconnection of all life are reflected in the contemporary theories of author, academic and scientist Tim Flannery. Flannery’s connection of James Lovelock’s Gaia theory of the Earth as a living organism with the scientific views of Alfred Russel Wallace of an interconnected earth, in his research into climate change, has informed my practice. The diversity of these approaches indicate how deeply embedded such ideas are in the human psyche.
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page 21 The Gaia hypothesis developed by Lovelock in the 1970s branched into the Gaia Theory and Earth System science soon after. Lovelock named the Earth Gaia after an ancient Greek earth goddess, and indeed a view of the earth as creative and regenerating is evident in many ancient cultures. Lovelock (2007, 208) defines the GaiaTheory as:
A view of the earth that sees it as a self-regulating system made up from the totality of organisms, the surface rocks, the oceans and the atmosphere tightly coupled as an evolving system. The theory sees this system as having a goal – the regulation of surface conditions so as always to be as favourable as possible for contemporary life.
Flannery (2005, 17) considers that the debate continues over Gaia’s existence, but despite this he advocates a belief in the principle of Gaia because of the worldview of connection and interrelationships, sustainability of ecosystems, and responsibility that it fosters. He argues that in the modern world the reductionist worldview that sees human action in isolation is increasingly prevalent, and believes this view has resulted in the climate change that we experience today, with the resultant threat of inundations due to rising sea levels, and more frequent and extreme climatic events. The significance of Flannery and Lovelock’s theories lies in the human impact on river ecology seen in the effect of climate change on river ecosystems worldwide, and in the organic perception of nature central to my work. Wallace, expressed ideas about the development of species, questioning Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species (1859), culminating in Man’s Place in the Universe (1903), which Flannery (2005, 37) believes contains insights relevant to twenty-first-century environmental concerns.
What makes the book so percipient is its author’s integrated, holistic way of thinking. It is a similar approach to that of James Lovelock and his Gaia theory; and as was Lovelock, Wallace was struck with the realization that even slight variations in existing conditions would make Earth uninhabitable.
Wallace made an expedition to the Malay Archipelago and noted distinct differences between species on either side of what became known as the Wallace Line,
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page 22 a biogeographic line that separates the distinctly different flora and fauna of Asia and Australia, related by Grishin (2006, 173) to the theory of tectonic plates and continental drift. We have seen how artist John Wolseley has explored the complexities of time as an element in projecting an image of interconnectedness in his work. He develops a particular connection to the holistic perspective in his series Tracing the Wallace Line, 1999–2001 (figure 9).16
Figure 9 John Wolseley, The Territories of Birds Remembering Gondwana and Laurasia (detail), 2001 watercolour on paper, 76 x 263 cm
Wolseley’s painting represents the two distinct types of flora and fauna, the dynamic state of the earth and the interconnections between species, place and time, informed by Wallace’s journals. Wolseley (quoted in Roslyn Oxley 9 2001) sums up his approach thus:
I am trying to give form to my obsession and fascination with the way every living species is part of the huge dynamic movement of the earth and its evolution. If one looks at the frond of a fern say, in its design and structure, there lies the history of the earth.
The philosophies of Flannery, Lovelock, Wallace and Wolseley are connected through the concept of a holistic worldview, and related ecological concerns, and this in turn connects with the worldview of Humboldt and von Guérard (in his wilderness paintings). These perceptions of wholeness in nature, running through a long tradition of scientific, ecological and artistic engagement with the concept, form part of the theoretical- artistic foundation of my research practice.
Eco-philosophies The worldview that seeks wholeness and interdependence, seen in Wolseley’s practice
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page 23 and characteristic of an increasing number of contemporary artists, leads naturally to engagement with issues of ecology and environmentalism. I have investigated the corresponding shift in the role of the artist through research into Suzi Gablik’s ideas on art, society and ecology: Gablik advocates a change in our perception of the artist and their relationship to the environment.17 She brings to her practice a wealth of knowledge as an artist, teacher and writer; her reassessment of art, its relevance in contemporary society and its relationship to ecology is significant because she argues for the need for a renewed connection between the artist and society based on social interconnection, ecological concern and relatedness (Gablik 1992, 7–8). Gablik contrasts this position with that of the Modernist individual artist working in isolation from society, who produces objects for aesthetic purposes that are disconnected from life issues. She proposes that art can raise social awareness about the ecosystem, and promote community awareness and knowledge, to offset reductionist thinking that promotes nature as a commodity. Indeed, Gablik states (1992, 22–23) that a new way of seeing is possible, and it is people within society who can change the way the world is viewed: holistically as a rich and complex interrelationship of all life – or individualistically, with humans viewed as disconnected from nature. It follows that the artist may have a significant influence on our cultural paradigm. We have seen how contemporary artists within my reference canon, like Martin, Southam and Wolsely, have, through their different methods, embraced a holistic approach to the natural world, and have engaged with time, revealing a shared concern for the sustaining ecosystem. The concepts of Gablik, although espoused in the 1990’s, have continued to remain relevant because, with the passage of time, the need for ecological, social and artistic connections has become more urgent, as the threat to ecosystems increases globally. Because it is the weaving together of these strands in my own practice that crucially underpins my research question, it was important for me to understand the way artists in my canon have achieved this. In particular, Bonita Ely, Mandy Martin and Susanne
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page 24 McLean provide a case study for sustained commitment to ecologically motivated work, through a range of media and disciplines, and by engaging with scientists, community and the environment. Ely’s practice interrogates interconnections between humans and nature, and humans and non-human species. It is the conceptual aspect of her performance and site- specific work investigating the interrelationship between humans and ecological issues that informs my practice. Ely’s focus on these concerns is emphasized by Janine Burke (1990, 96) when she writes, “Nature as balance, as a regenerative force, as a measuring stick for harmony or disjunction within society, these are the mainstays of Ely’s deep involvement with landscape.” The human impact on nature over time is evident in her photographs in Drought: The Murray’s Estuary, 2009 (Ely 2009), and Murray River Punch, 1980 (Ely 1980). The ideas behind this work have informed my research directly because depleted water quality and human effects on ecosystems have impacted on the Brisbane River ecology. Burke (1990, 92) identifies Ely’s engagement with landscape and her development of works based on the Murray River ecosystem as being most likely a response to her connection to place, and growing up on the Murray River at Robinvale. On her website, Ely (2009) states that her research of the Murray River began in 1977 to address ecological issues such as the rising water table caused by irrigation, and the clearance of red river gums, which caused increased salt levels in the river. Later, Ely revisited the Murray River as a subject in 2009, and photographed it to show the extent of the degradation that had occurred; these photographs document the progressive depletion of the river ecology caused by human exploitation. In comparison to other artists from my canon, Ely is very different because her performance and video work Murray River Punch tackles issues head-on: the video involves active social engagement to communicate issues about ecological degradation, with the purpose of raising public awareness. In the video, Ely acts as a cooking demonstrator and mixes up a punch for her audience to experience. According to Burke (1990, 95), this punch served up all the pollutants of the Murray
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page 25 River to draw attention to water contamination. Other artists from my canon use different techniques to promote public awareness about ecological issues with a more or less overt agenda: as a subtle inference in Southam’s photography; through meditation on the fragility of ecosystems, in the work of Wolseley. Susanne McLean has also focused on decreased water quality in river ecosystems, in a series of installations and paintings on loose canvas, using sediment-laden water from the Brisbane River in her work to increase public awareness about water quality and ecological depletion. In her practice, McLean raises questions through the function and process of art about the relationship of artists, scientists and the community to communicate the human effect on ecology. Ingrid Hoffman (2002, 49) states “McLean linked herself to scientists from the cooperative Research Centre for coastal Zone Estuary and Waterway Management and the Department of the Environment in Brisbane, to undertake the field research she needed to perform her work in the riverside gallery on the Brisbane River flood plain.” Through research with scientists, McLean has developed installations such as Water Web, 2002 (figure 10). This work is characteristic of McLean’s practice and it is similar in intention to her exhibition at the Bundaberg Art Centre in 2000, called Our Land Weeps Salt; As Earth Lays Scarred by the Absence of Trees. Writer and curator Timothy Morrell (2000, n.p.) discusses McLean’s practice and her need to make art to question the human impact on ecology, in this case including clearing the earth of trees, so that the water table rises and salinity increases. Like Ely’s, McLean’s ecological-based practice has a reformist agenda, and this approach has informed my research process. McLean’s holistic approach in her practice also reflects Gablik’s ideas of the artist working in collaboration with scientists and the community, again linking her work to that of Ely. McLean’s experimentation with a range of media and reference to the Brisbane River’s littoral edge and water quality, together with her research with local scientists, connects our work. However, we differ in the use of disciplines and media: McLean has been an inspiration in her innovative use of media (including dripping river water onto
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page 26 canvas, rubbing back into surfaces with sand, salt and stone, and reworking into surfaces with colour); she also uses techniques such as potassium staining, and an evaporation process that resembles topographical mapping in effect; she also creates installations and uses materials from site. But my studio research is radically different in its emphasis on painting and representation – which connects this aspect of my research more directly to the work of Mandy Martin.
Figure 10 Susanne McLean, Water Web, 2002, installation at the Powerhouse Museum, Brisbane
Martin’s practice also embraces research into ecosystems informed by the community and science, and she has experimented with materials from site such as ochre and pigment, for example in the Desert Channels landscape series study Georgina Gidyea Waterhole, Cravens Peak, 2007 (figure 11). Martin’s earlier paintings had referenced Australian landscapes from a Western historic perspective (as in figure 1), but the Desert Channels landscape series (painted on location from 2007–09, showing seasonal changes, and changes wet-to-dry) records her chance encounters with the landscape and are less designed, but mimetic (Robin et al. 2011, 81). For this reason these paintings reflect a greater connection to particular locations: they form part of a larger project that has responded to global changes and a desire to conserve landscape and culture, and are included in the publication Desert Channels: The Impulse to Conserve (eds. Libby Robin, Chris Dickman and Mandy Martin 2011), along with contributions from scientists, archaeologists, ecologists, and historians. Martin’s Desert Channels landscape series, which was developed in collaboration with different communities, scientists and the landscape, aims to promote conservation, and public awareness through painting and publishing.
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Figure 11 Mandy Martin Georgina Gidyea Waterhole, Cravens Peak, 2007, pigment/ochres/acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm
Martin’s long-standing commitment to forging connections between scientific perceptions of nature and communities, and engaging with political and social views to promote greater awareness about river ecosystems, can be seen in Inflows: The Channel
Country, a collaboration over five years with pastoralists, environmentalists, historians and art curators, one aim of which was to counter an irrigation development (see Waddi Wood, Acacia Peuce near Birdsville 2001 figure 12).
Figure 12 Mandy Martin Waddi Wood, Acacia Peuce near Birdsville, 2001, oil, ochre, pigment/linen, 90 x 330 cm
Martin’s integration of traditional oil and acrylic paint with earth pigments amalgamates the awareness of particular locations with traditions of landscape painting. She explains her interest in the Romantic style, arguing that people often misinterpret Romanticism as a glossed-over view of nature, when in fact it represents in a visual medium the complexity of nature and the paradox of nature’s awfulness and beauty, its ugliness and attractiveness (Martin quoted in Barbour 1988, n.p.). In contrast to the other contemporary artists discussed here, Martin engages with a Western traditional mode of representation, whilst also informed by history, science,
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page 28 location and landscape traditions, to convey some of the complexities of the Australian landscape over time, and our connection to and identity with it. This approach, both holistic and capable of advocating a conservationist agenda, finds common ground in the engagement with organic and cyclic time and nature that informs contemporary eco- philosophies Eco-feminism also advocates a holistic worldview. The origin of the term eco- feminism is discussed by Carolyn Merchant (in Diamond and Orenstein 1990, 100):
The term ecoféminisme was coined by the French writer Françoise d’ Eaubonne in 1974 to represent women’s potential for bringing about an ecological revolution to ensure human survival on the planet. Such an ecological revolution would entail new gender relationships between women and men and between humans and nature.
Philosophers Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein (1990, ix) see eco-feminism as a shift away from dualistic concepts, such as nature and culture, and the female and male, towards a positive holistic understanding of the complex relationships and interconnections between all life forms, with an awareness of difference and continuity. This belief in the interconnection of life, and of the earth as a living organism, as expressed by the eco-feminists Merchant, Diamond and Orenstein, and Plumwood, find much in common with Lovelock’s Gaia theory and the scientific work of Flannery (discussed earlier). Plumwood views contemporary Western society as disconnected from the world of different human and non-human others, and proposes a way of resolving ecological and relational problems: to “remake reason in a different mould from the master mould” in a way that acknowledges the holistic connection between other humans, and with non- human organisms, to develop an “enriching coexistence with earth others” (1993, 195–6). In summary, eco-feminism and other contemporary eco-philosophies propose a shift in perspective from a mechanistic and reductionist view of nature-and-culture dualisms, although as we have seen, a perception of interconnectedness and of an organic or holistic worldview can also be traced back in time via traditional scientist von Humboldt and colonial artist von Guérard.18 Awareness of fundamental connections
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page 29 between art, science, ecology, and place – together with a holistic worldview – is also characteristic of the contemporary artists in my canon of case studies. Framed in terms of the research question, it is clear that there is an extensive and ongoing discourse surrounding interdependence between art, ecology, and society; and around landscape, both as an art genre and as a specific location in space/time where these cultural influences interact. Suzi Gablik calls for a new art grounded in human relationships and care for the living earth, rather than the production of art objects in isolation, and the contemporary artists reviewed demonstrate some of the ways that this is indeed achievable. Tamsin Kerr (writer, artist and director of the Cooroora Institute, Queensland) could be regarded as a contemporary advocate for such connections of the artist with the community and nature.19 Through her workshops, residencies and artists’ talks she promotes different ways of creating art that are community based and not commercially motivated. Her philosophical position is based in eco-regionalism and the holistic interrelationships of nature and community. The dynamic model for a holistic view of landscape with an environmental agenda takes a significant step towards answering the research question. There remains the important issue of how the subject of the Brisbane River can be represented in the visual medium of painting to address the human impact on river ecology, which has led my research into an investigation of representation and depiction.
Art and Illusionism and Depiction: Ernst Gombrich and Michael Podro The investigation in my practice into how to represent the Brisbane River to address the human impact on river ecology has been informed by an enquiry into style, format and media, and this has naturally led to an enquiry into representation and depiction, informed by Ernst Gombrich and Michael Podro. An enquiry developed in my practice into how compositional elements and painterly effects can elicit recognition of the subject, convey meaning and construct a fabrication of reality – rather than a purely mimetic copy of a scene. Specifically, I investigated the visual language required for the imaginative and
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page 30 subjective construction of a fictive reality that engages with ecological issues and the human impact on river ecology over time, as well as offering an imaginative space for reflection upon these issues. This approach can be seen in my research paintings: the questions raised through the visual language are intended to engage the viewer in the issues about river time and river ecology, rather than to present the viewer with a painted copy of a river scene at a particular time of day. To both engage the viewer and represent the subject, a connection between the psychology of perception of the artist and of the beholder is necessary. As Ernst Gombrich (1977, 326) argues, “all human communication is through symbols, through the medium of a language, and the more articulate the language the greater the chance for the message to get through”. This defines the challenge implied in my research question. Historically, changes in style have not only been related to changes in skill but also to perceptions of the visible world (Gombrich 1987, 10). Gombrich (1977, 319) suggests that
It is because art operates with a structured style governed by technique and the schemata of tradition that representation could become the instrument not only of information but also of expression.
This rings true for my practice and its changing styles, which have been a response to shifts in perception, and a desire to find ways to convey meaning and engage the viewer in the subject. This is expressed in my paintings through stylistic modes of representation informed by traditions and knowledge of art, as well as an individual expression derived from experience and memories of the River. Discussing the roles of style and mimesis in the context of the painting of John Constable (1776–1837), Gombrich (1987, 327–28) sees a difficulty in uniting the imaginary inner world of poetics, and the style or vocabulary the artist inherits from traditions of art, with the accuracy derived from the observation of nature. To extend his visual vocabulary Constable engaged in a series of experiments that resulted in slight
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page 31 shifts away from the traditional Romantic landscape style he inherited; for example, he employed a brighter palette and the use of highlights, and carried his experiments into relationships of elements within the painting and further painterly effects. The tension between evocation and accurate description had already been identified by Gombrich (1987, 33):
The artist cannot copy a sunlit lawn, but he can suggest it. Exactly how he does it in any particular instance is his secret, but the word of power which makes this magic possible is known to all artists – that is relationships.
Thus a picture generates a fictive construction of a reality suggested through the imaginative selection and deployment of painterly effects, and through the relationships of the elements that the artist conjures up. It is the viewer’s task to respond to, interpret and find meaning in what has been offered. The success of this dialogue is dependent on the visual language used by the artist to communicate. Because effectiveness of communication is central to representing the human impact on the ecology of the Brisbane River over time, I reviewed the theories of Michael Podro concerning how media and surface may be integrated through painterly effects to elicit recognition of the subject (Podro 1998, 13). As a result, my practice has investigated how to sustain recognition through materiality and depiction: the process of investigating surface and medium has developed over several bodies of work. Podro (1998, 2) proposes that . . . the recognition of the subject is extended and elaborated by the way its conditions of representation, the medium and the psychological adjustments the painting invites, become absorbed into its content.
Therefore my research, informed by Podro, investigated media and the psychological response of the viewer to the subject depicted. This response was assessed by the evaluation and review research process discussed in Chapter Two. The viewer response was significant because it completes the link in the process of developing recognition of the subject.
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page 32 Gombrich (1987, 44) also gives insight into promoting recognition in painting, and how the viewer’s response to the material correspondences or relationships between the elements, rather than the elements themselves, forms the key to developing a convincing image. He argues that the painter’s problem is a psychological one of “conjuring up a convincing image despite the fact that not one individual shade corresponds to what we call reality. Informed by progress in my studio painting, and by theoretical research into Gombrich and Podro, I extended my enquiry in 2010–2011 into how depiction can most effectively promote recognition through the convergence of the surface and medium, and how to represent a fictive reality through constructed relationships of elements within the subject as depicted. Gombrich states (1987, 314)
. . . representation is never a replica. The forms of art, ancient and modern, are not duplications of what the artist has in mind any more than they are duplications of what he sees in the outer world. . . . they are renderings within a required medium, a medium grown up through tradition and skill – that of the artist and that of the beholder.
This approach to constructing a picture that engages the viewer in the subject via its mode of depiction, rather than attempting to produce a literal copy of reality, is also discussed by Martin. In his article, Barbour (1988) cites Martin, who speaks of her painting Red Ochre Cove, 1988 (figure 13), in the following way:
That’s where the multi-level response comes in. It is a landscape, but it’s not real, it’s a representation. It’s a picture of a site but it’s also obviously a fantasy I’ve created. It doesn’t look like the site I’ve worked on at all – it’s come out of my own mind, so psychological elements are introduced.
In this painting, the subjective, psychological response to place is represented: it is not identifiable as a particular location; indeed, she says there are five Red Ochre Coves around Australia, and her painting, although informed by location, is also a representation inspired by imaginative interpretation, rather than intending to convey a mimetic copy.
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page 33
Figure 13 Mandy Martin, Red Ochre Cove, 1988, oil on linen, 285 x 121 cm
Thus, her work exemplifies Gombrich’s position on representation (above) by demonstrating her acknowledged debt to the Romantic sublime (see above, Section 1) Besides Martin, a number of other contemporary painters construct a reflective space via a fictive reality in their paintings, to engage with ecological and other issues. These include Lisa Adam’s reference to climate change, seen in her painting Cold Wind, 2008. Here she constructs a landscape that references topographic painting styles, while incorporating the disruptive visual element of a tree frozen with ice. Ian Grant also develops a reflective and fictive space that he says is “often a constructed reality” that is not concerned with accurate depiction of specific site recognition, “. . . but more the sensory experience of site . . .” (Grant 2012, 1).20 By contrast, David Keeling sees landscape as a political space: he deliberately constructs landscape images so that there is “evidence of a human presence (historical and contemporary) echoing through a view” (Keeling 2012, 1).21 The work of these artists confirms that landscape painting may offer an effective realm in which it is possible to create a fictive reality, a space for reflection on issues social and political and ecological. Having taken my research into areas of representation and depiction, it became clear that the tradition of landscape painting is important to my approach to representing the issues surrounding Brisbane River ecology.
Landscape Painting Landscape painting of the Romantic and picturesque, as well as of contemporary and traditional practitioners, has informed my visual language. Simon Schama (1995, 10–11)
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page 34 proposes that the concept of landscape is both a human construct and a framing of nature, and that “it is our shaping perception that makes the difference between raw matter and landscape”. He traces the development of this notion of landscape from the Netherlands (where we see fishermen, cattle drovers, and travellers involved in everyday activities in paintings by artist such as Esaias van de Velde), via Italian pastoral idyll (where landscape is setting for classical myths and sacred scripture), to a German concern with depicting occupation and ownership, as well as aesthetically pleasing natural scenes. Schama sees in the composition of the English landscape, known as “landskip”, a poetic construct rather than a literal representation, a point emphasised in Henry Peacham prints that used lettering to frame the image. My research into the impact of human activity on the Brisbane River ecology particularly engages with the genre of landscape through the Romantic tradition of landscape painting. Romanticism is summarized by Kathryn Calley Galitz (2000, 1) as a “response to the disillusionment with the Enlightenment values of reason and order in the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1789”. She regards the Romantic perception of nature as organic not rational:
In Romantic art, nature – with its uncontrollable power, unpredictability and potential for cataclysmic extremes – offered an alternative to the ordered world of Enlightenment thought. The violent and terrifying images of nature conjured by Romantic artists recall the eighteenth-century Sublime.22
James Twitchell (1983, 11) proposes that
To the Romantic artist the sublime was a way to span the abyss between inner and outer, and outer and “the Beyond”. . . the objects most capable of initiating this conjunction are those most beyond the constraining powers of the intellect: the vastness of the skies, the expanse of the sea, huge mountains.
While this strand of Romanticism may be applicable to the high drama of English artists Richard Wilson and J. M. W. Turner’s work, the Romantic representation of nature could, however, embrace a more intimate and domestic vision.23 Key aspects of the Romantic
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page 35 style, its organic and subjective perception of nature, are evident in Constable’s A View on the Stour near Dedham, 1822 (figure 113), where he engages with the experience of the domesticated landscape of his home. In this, Galitz (2000, 1) finds that Constable presented “another facet of the Romantic attitude to nature”, for his landscape painting “expresses his response to his native English countryside.” Constable himself (quoted in Galitz 2000, 1) described the subjective response to landscape seen in his sketches as “nothing but one state of mind – that which you were in at the time”. Ray Lambert (2005, 205) sees in Constable’s paintings what may be described as a sophisticated version of the picturesque which “can be seen as an integration of both execution and sentiment”. He suggests that the picturesque style has the potential to ennoble by “association of ideas” and to contextualize, culturally and historically, mundane actions, and local and rural life. Here again, Constable’s approach to art-making informs my work: through his subjective response to place, and his capacity to project a concept of society, as opposed to merely presenting a rational view of nature. My research also explored several Australian colonial painters working in the Romantic style who convey a subjective response to nature. These include Conrad Martens, Eugène von Guérard, Isaac Walter Jenner and William Buelow Gould (who also produced scientific illustrations of fish and other organisms). Bernard Smith, (1979, 44–46) states that, historically, Australian early nineteenth-century representations of place continued the English topographical style as seen in the paintings of John Eyre, Major Taylor and J. W. Lewin. According to Smith, the topographical style was slowly replaced by the Romantic style of landscape painting in the early 1800s, because of a change in taste “that preferred the natural to the ordered, the mysterious to the rational”.24 One aspect of the Romantic style is the picturesque view of nature, and Bernard Smith (1971, 13) argues that this mode, too, was not a literal copy of nature but a construct of it: “. . .picturesque paintings were not simply transcripts of nature but they were painted by selecting and combining motifs drawn from a number of sketches”. William Gilpin, in a range of publications, such as Three Essays: on Picturesque Beauty, on Picturesque
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page 36 Travel, and on Sketching the Landscape (1794), had helped popularize principles for the making of perfect design in pictures. In his book An Essay on Prints (first published in 1768) he defines the picturesque as “a term expressive of that particular kind of beauty, which is agreeable in a picture”. (Gilpin 1802, xii) Australian colonial artist Martens’ use of the natural picturesque, as seen from the safety of colonial order, is discussed by Christopher Allen (1998, 24). Elizabeth Ellis (1994, 19–26) describes Martens as painting for the “gentleman of the colony” and cites an extract from The Australian (31 July 1835) that described Martens as “wandering in search of the picturesque”.25 A more local example of the picturesque and Romantic style appears in colonial Brisbane artist Isaac Walter Jenner’s Brisbane River paintings.26
Jenner’s early work, until about 1882, is shaped by the soft light and picturesque style of Dutch and British marine painting, and the kind of detail and genre scenes depicted in British marine art (Fry 1994, 18). Later, Turner and Constable influenced his painting, and Gavin Fry (1994, 39) argues that Jenner’s painting becomes Romantic in spirit: from my observation of his work, this can be seen in his preference for the dramatic light of sunrise and sunset, and in atmospheric effects and picturesque waterscapes that emphasise the drama of nature, but with a reassuring human presence, as seen in his Brisbane pictures Hamilton Reach 1885 (row-boats) and On the Edge of the Swamp, Norman Creek 1889 (small settlement in distant clearing) (figures 14–15).
Figure 14 Isaac Walter Jenner, Hamilton Reach, 1885, oil on wood panel, 21.7 x 52.4 cm
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Figure 15 Isaac Walter Jenner, On the Edge of the Swamp, Norman Creek, 1889, oil on canvas 24.7 x 40 cm
Figure 16 William Buelow Gould, River Scene, ca. 1827–53, oil on tin, 15.2 x 20.9 cm
A picturesque Romantic style is also evident in the naive Tasmanian landscapes of William Buelow Gould, as in River Scene (figure 16). His subjective interpretation of the image is discernible in the foreground placement of a single tree, figures involved in activities in the landscape, boats on the water, and the soft light effects that evoke sunset – characteristic of picturesque and Romantic constructs of landscape rather than of a literal copy of a scene. The concept of the Picturesque was originally based on the ideal landscape established by Claude Lorrain, (an artist who also influenced the work of John Constable). During the eighteenth century, framing the landscape and selecting a composition, in a similar way that we use a camera viewfinder today, assisted the representation of a constructed reality. Schama (1995, 10) describes the eighteenth-century Claude- glass, used by artists and tourists to lend a painterly quality to the landscape, as the most extreme example of deliberate framing. He continues (Schama 1995, 15), “And
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page 38 landscape can be self-consciously designed to express the virtues of a particular political or social community.” This is evident in the imaginative designs of the picturesque and Romantic style that engaged with organic aspects of nature and time, contrary to the rational perceptions of nature that also existed in the nineteenth century. The tension between on one hand the organic, and on the other, the regulated, rational aspects of nature is an intriguing aspect of this style, a tension seen in von Guérard’s paintings of landscapes and mining, as well as in more pristine-seeming landscapes such as Tower Hill 1855 (figure 17), where the artist’s subjective and holistic response to the wonderment of nature’s diversity, and to the geological formations of volcanic landscapes, conflicts with the clearing and encroaching encampment.
Figure 17 Eugène von Guérard, Tower Hill, 1855, oil on canvas, 68.6 x 122 cm
The myths and memories of association between different aspects of the landscape, and the empathy that these can express between humans and nature, may also be a factor in Romantic depictions of landscape. Such myths and memories can develop associations or metaphorical connections between different realms of thought; these might include notions of river time, of the river of life, and the tree of life. As an example, Schama (1995, 19) points out that Caspar David Friedrich’s The Cross and Cathedral in the Mountains, 1812, represents an interrelation between nature and culture, rather than their separation. By contrast, the perception of myth and memory within landscape has not been a dominant one in art during the twentieth century. Many art movements have instead been closely associated with urbanization, or the mechanistic and technological developments seen in
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page 39 movements such as Cubism and Futurism. However, a renewed concern with the myths and memories – and an intimate experience and knowledge – of location can be seen in the work of contemporary Tasmanian painters Philip Wolfhagen and Geoff Dyer, who engage the viewer through expressive styles that revisit Romanticism and the Sublime. In their practice, perhaps, the awe expressed is not of nature itself, but anxiety about the human impact on ecology during the course of Western colonization of the landscape, and the consequence of this for the sustainability of life. While Dyer’s work directly addresses the impact of mining around the King River, Wolfhagen’s painting is described by Peter Timms (2005, 33) as creating “. . . an atmosphere of melancholy and loss which captures the mood of our apprehensive time”.27
Schama argues that although the rational worldview has been dominant, a sense of connection with nature, and the influence of myths and memories of the rivers and forests have continued in parallel and sustained human imagination: “Instead of assuming the mutually exclusive character of Western culture and nature, I want to suggest the strength of the links that have bound them together” (Schama 1995, 14). Schama believes that these links operate through myth and memory, and that rediscovering them is a way of affirming the positive connection of humans with nature. He observes that these can develop from past stories of the forests and rivers into the present and the future, as an alternative strand to the mechanistic perception of time and nature. Although disagreeing with Schama’s view that we have never lost the underlying myths of landscape tradition, eco-feminist, Val Plumwood (1993, 196) reaches a similar conclusion. Plumwood believes the reason/ nature story of Western culture is a disabling narrative that has worked to destroy and incorporate nature and cultural groups that are regarded as subordinate into the master story. As we have seen, Plumwood advocates the need to find less destructive narratives that acknowledge kinship and differences in relationships with nature and other cultural groups, taking ideas from the “sustaining stories of the cultures we have cast as outside reason”.
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page 40 Perhaps the most revealing outcome of the theoretical research has been the discovery that a holistic or unifying perception of interconnectedness within nature and human cultures is just as present within the colonial, inhabited wilderness paintings of Eugène von Guérard, as in Romantic notions of the picturesque, and the Gaia hypothesis; it persists in the vision of scientists and of ecological and feminist theorists; and is expressed in the very different paintings of Mandy Martin and John Wolseley, among others. In practice the holistic worldview is evident in the synergy of collaboration of artists with scientists and the community in creating art that has an environmental reformist agenda or is a celebration of nature. Conversely, this holistic view is capable of accommodating complex interactions between inclusive narrative, myth, time, paradox and environmental concern. It therefore offers a sustainable model for the investigation and expression of different facets of the issues raised by my research question. This approach engages with the representation of the micro and macro aspects of place, as well as with the dynamic aspects of nature. It also connects with the Romantic vision of nature that rejected the rational perception adopted by the enlightenment. In their own ways, both Gablik and Flannery have urged a connected view of ecosystems, and argued for our responsibility for the environment that this view implies, whilst Bonyhady has pointed out the damaging inertia caused by conflicting forces of aesthetic value perceived in nature, and personal and financial vested interest – when the individual will or political expediency takes precedence over the needs of the wider environment. It is Gablik, in her call for a new, holistic way of seeing, who opens the way for the artist to influence this negative paradigm. We have seen how changes in perceptions of nature, for example in the Romantic- holistic worldview, as opposed to a rationalist-mechanistic one, can promote changes in the representation of nature, as seen in Constable’s and von Guérard’s work; how visual language can be modified experimentally by varying elements, such as colour and highlights, to achieve an intensity of effect or emphasise the significance of a motif. This naturally leads to the concept of landscape as a designed construct, and
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page 41 further, to recognition (in the terms of Gombrich and Schama) that representation can elicit recognition of the subject by suggestion and imaginative interpretation, and that relationships of elements within the composition can be used to construct a fictive reality rather than a literal copy of reality. It may be that the resulting space for reflection can be equated with the experience of Rawson’s “time as region” (above). Once we accept the argument that modes of representation can be used to construct a fictive reality, it follows that communicating a reformist agenda in painting becomes a possibility: the construction of a landscape to engage the viewer in a particular perception of nature has been central to my research on how to represent the Brisbane River, to evolve a visual language to communicate effectively the separate strands of meaning and intention that combine in my work. The investigation towards this language has spanned research into flowing and cyclical notions of time, which underpin my perception of the Brisbane River’s dynamic state of flux; the place of the traditional and colonial painting heritage; and Podro’s insight into the integration of materiality as a vital component in the communication of the artwork. Ultimately, the holistic worldview appears embedded in human associations with nature and perceptions of nature through time, and survives despite the more dominant, rational perception of the natural world. This underlying continuity, and corresponding significance of the organic perception of nature, is fundamental to my investigation into how to address the human impact on Brisbane River ecology through time, as demonstrated through the six bodies of work created over the course of my research.
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page 42 CHAPTER TWO STUDIO AND LOCATION RESEARCH PROCESSES
My research from 2008–2012 developed six related bodies of work. The diverse research processes used are, in part, both a response to the Brisbane River’s flux and my perception of this over time, and a response to the experience of living on the River. The range of my approaches indicates the scope of my quest to find a more authentic way to represent the human impact on Brisbane River ecology. I experimented with an extensive range of formats, media and styles in the process of creating the art works, which were then evaluated to assess the effectiveness of their methodology, and to determine those aspects of the research that might be rejected or selected for further research in the next body of work. The term painting in my research refers to the process of applying media in liquid or solid states to substrates. Interpreted in a postmodern context, painting is described by Petra Halkes (1995, 69) as the use of the materiality of paint to transmit meaning. She says “contemporary painters . . . rely on the substance of paint to evoke meaning, and indeed use as paint other substances that can function similarly: tar, straw, lead and sand”. Traditional and contemporary media that I investigated include oil paint and metallic oil paint, sediment, mud, river-water, and graphite; and substrates have included cotton, linen and polyester canvas, Claybord, copper, and watercolour paper.28 For site-specific work at the littoral edge, I worked with the river itself – the water sediment, mangroves, debris, and with a yellow clothesline, documented through photographs. The six bodies of work began with the 2008 Fragile Nature series of oil paintings on cotton, linen and polyester canvas in the rectangular and panorama format. These investigate time and rhythm as in music and art; science and ecology; and the work of artists such as James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Wolseley, who have informed my work through music references and stylistic modes respectively. Second, the 2009 River Story, Fragile Nature and Deep River series extends this visual language and use of media
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page 43 within the panorama format and the rectangular portrait format. It references river stories and is informed by artists such as Yvonne Audette and Paul Klee. Third is the 2009– 2010 River Traces that were created by working at the river’s littoral edge, and involved recording traces of river sediment on about twenty loose polyester canvases: I submerged canvas in the river water, exposed the canvas to weather effects, and reworked with graphite into the sediment traces, each time over several days or weeks. Fourth, the 2010 River with Quadrat photographs research the River to investigate different perceptions of nature, including the colonial-patriarchal perception, and the organic and open worldview, through the imposition of domestic yellow clothesline at the littoral edge, with reference to artist Bonita Ely. Fifth is the 2010 rectangular oil on Claybord paintings of the River and Inundation series that engage with time and art, ecology and art, and colonialism, in an illusionistic and descriptive style. Sixth, in 2011–12, the small, rectangular oil on copper River and Inundation paintings, a response to the 2011 flood, investigate time and place, ecology and art, traditionalism, illusionism and depiction, seeking, in treating this catastrophic event, a resolution to the fundamental research question. The fact that my studio is at the River’s edge has ensured that all the bodies of work are fed by experience, memories and a response to the Brisbane River. Some bodies of work, such as the River Traces and River with Quadrat photographs, engage materially with the river, and extend my experience of place to inform later research paintings in 2010 and 2011. The 2010 oil on Claybord paintings reflect this experience and, through the process of studio and theoretical research, and the domestic activities associated with living near the River, respond to the River’s cycles and history, in questioning human impact on the River’s ecology. These paintings also address the River’s complexity in the incongruity between the beauty of nature and motifs indicating depletion, and by referencing changing perceptions of nature over time. The 2011–12 oil on copper paintings continue the research into an organic perception of nature. They explore this topic, drawing on experience, memory and conceptual research to create a different impact, on a smaller scale and using copper, a
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page 44 semi-precious material, to intensify focus on the river’s unique qualities. The journey the research has taken is like the River, fluid and changing. This journey towards a resolution embodies the psychological and perceptual shifts that have taken place through an investigation of river ecology: my experience of location and the changes to the river ecology influence the response that I have had to the subject, during the course of the research.
HOW THE RESEARCH QUESTION IS ADDRESSED BY MY STUDIO PRACTICE The studio methodologies used are based on a process of experiment and analysis of the question through different formats, media and styles, informed by theory, art practitioners and scientists. The research develops a reflective practice that rejects some processes and embraces others in evolving a schema that is constantly open to possible changes through further research. These research processes are informed by Donald Schön’s (1983) reflection in action practice. They develop a process of enquiry based on past experience and representation, such as my earlier 2006 Studies in Light paintings, allowing this initial work to be extended through studio practice, evaluation and a re- framing of the research methods. Schön (1983, 134) writes, “when the practitioner tries to solve the problem he has set, he seeks both to understand the situation and to change it”. Following these principles, my investigation into format, media and style developed through experimentation, exhibition and critical review. I have been able to integrate this experience, alongside discussions with supervisors and other artists, into the evolving processes of my research. The term style used in describing my practice relates to the visual language applied in my painting, which can be broadly regarded as schematic and illusionistic. In the research process, style is discussed through an analysis of elements such as colour, line and texture, and through the relationships of those elements within the painting, to support discussion of scale, gradation, size, harmony and contrast within the compositions. The
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page 45 process of this analysis is the means used in my painting to extend the visual language of successive bodies of work, and to discuss the artistic theory and philosophic worldviews that have informed my practice. Therefore, the term style is used in a different, more personal and precisely focused way than when applied in a more general sense by art historians, such as Erwin Panofsky in Three Essays on Style (1995), where the term may apply to an era, genre or national character. There evolved a process of working that is open to new possibilities of representation over time, through critical analysis, setting new projects and applying innovative methods. The research process is discussed by Schön (1983, 136): “A successful re-framing of the problematic situation leads to a continuation of the reflective conversation.” In the case of my research, evaluation of the work has certainly led to new research processes that continue to experiment with and critically analyse the process of research, to find the most effective mode to engage the audience in the question of my enquiry. The research outcome demonstrates that the synergies emerging from experience of place, and from theoretical and historical research, enrich my studio practice – and ensure it is receptive to new investigations as they emerge in the future through focused awareness of the contexts of my work.
STUDIES IN LIGHT – THE FORMATION OF AN IDEA
The Brisbane River has been the subject of my paintings for many years, as evidenced by my earlier work of 2006 that documents the river from the location of my studio near the river’s edge. In the 2006 paintings the perception of the River is of an idyllic waterscape conveyed through a conventional landscape style. The perception does not engage with issues associated with river ecology and the human impact on it, but more closely connects with the aesthetics of the River, its light, topography, and signs of human use such as bridges, pontoons and jetties, that indicate cultural and domestic security. A representational style was selected because these works were intended as documentary
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page 46 studies in light at particular locations and times of day (evidenced by the titles). These present a record of how I perceived the River in 2006; since then my perception, and the Brisbane River too, has changed dramatically. In contrast to these earlier paintings the research of the River from 2008–2012 has evolved via investigation into riverine ecosystems, informed by scientists, philosophies, time theories, and artists who have an ecological agenda. In comparison to the 2006 paintings, the 2011 paintings of the littoral edge and river represent a completely transformed ecosystem.
Figure 18 Jennifer Stuerzl, Study in Light 13: Indooroopilly Bridge, May 5 pm, 2006, 30.5 x 20.5 cm Figure 19 Jennifer Stuerzl, Study in Light 1: Indooroopilly Reach, March 6 pm, 2006, 30.5 x 20.5 cm Figure 20 Jennifer Stuerzl, Study in Light 7: Indooroopilly Reach, March 6 pm, 2006, 30.5 x 20.5 cm Figure 21 Jennifer Stuerzl, Study in Light 8: Water, Earth and Sky, July 3 pm, 2006, 30.5 x 20.5 cm
Figure 22 Jennifer Stuerzl, Study in Light 5: Towards Indooroopilly Bridge, July 3 pm, 2006, 30.5 x 20.5 cm Figure 23 Jennifer Stuerzl, Study in Light 6: Indooroopilly Reach, January 9 pm, 2006, 30.5 x 20.5 cm
The preliminary research of the River displayed in the studies (figures 18–23) gave me an empathy with the subject that enabled me to experiment further in 2008 with the intention of investigating different formats, media and style to develop a new enquiry into the representation of the subject. Thus my research continued an already-established
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page 47 art practice and extended the investigation into the representation of the human impact on river ecology through a process of studio and theory research. The research process used in creating the first body of work, theFragile Nature paintings, as with the other five bodies of work, is examined with reference to format, media and style, which are discussed and evaluated. Issues of ecology, time, materiality and theory direct the research to find an authentic way to address the question throughout the enquiry.
Fragile Nature Series 2008: oil on cotton, linen and polyester canvas The Fragile Nature paintings question the human use of the River and river ecology since colonial settlement. This first research process investigates the representation of the subject in painting experiments that address the fragile nature of Brisbane River ecology through a series of sixteen paintings in oil on cotton, canvas and polyester canvas ranging in size from approximately 20 cm x 30 cm to 19 cm x 183 cm in rectangular and panoramic formats. The ecological issues affecting the River include: climate change and ecological sustainability, biodiversity, and water quality. Research into how to represent this in painting is informed by Gablik’s views on the role of art and the community, the eco- philosophies of Plumwood, and artists such as Wolseley. The paintings engage with the interconnections between humankind and nature, and question perceptions of separateness and how best to address ecological issues and changes with time. Therefore, the history of the River and time’s complexity are also significant to these works. In the studio research, time is evoked through the River’s cycles and rhythms in nature, and by referencing time and music as a way of understanding river time. A similar, nonlinear process has been central to my research methodology, fluid and receptive to memories and experiences. Each return to the subject of the Brisbane River, working through format, media and style, has initiated a fresh cycle of evaluation and reflection on art, ecology and the River’s changes over time. At the littoral edge human-induced changes to the river can be seen in the mud
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page 48 and mangroves, and the circadian and human-imposed rhythms of the river evidenced by its tidal flow. How to represent these issues of time and ecology and the interconnections between nature and culture, investigated through my research into format, materials and style, is approached here through the selection and layering of motifs and component elements, and the relationship of these within the paintings. The visual language developing in these early works continued to evolve throughout the research, and this underlines the continuity of my focus on ecology, time and holistic perceptions that I investigate in the paintings. Format In February 2008 I experimented with a series of rectangular paintings and a series of panorama paintings to test the format most suited to the work. The initial investigation into format included diptychs in the vertical rectangular format and also experiments with the panorama format with loose stretchers, canvas and linen. The premise at this early stage of the research was that the panorama format was the most suitable as it developed continuity of imagery within the represented subject. The panorama was also selected because of its use in traditional colonial paintings, such as the previously mentioned Hamilton Reach, Brisbane (figure 14) and because structurally it represented the broad expanse of the river in a single panel. During 2008 the panorama was employed in a range of sizes and as the work progressed, the size was taken to an extreme, seen in the Fragile Nature 1 and 3 (figures 34–35). I intended that the panoramas could either be placed alongside each other to form a continuous frieze, or be viewed as separate panoramas. This format was proposed as a new approach for my research in investigating the subject. Within the evolving research process the panorama, including its scale and effectiveness, is tested, critically analysed, and evaluated to determine how effective this format is in engaging the viewer in the subject. Media In the studio research, the first experiments in media included studies that test the opacity and transparency and layering of oil paint. They investigated and evaluated
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page 49 the relationship of surface and medium, including oil paint, shellac, acrylic paint, and its integration with different surfaces, such as cotton, linen and polyester canvas, and paper to elicit recognition of the subject. These early paintings represented a fragment of nature at the littoral edge and included experiments with painting techniques such as sponging, stencilling and layering on different substrates, as seen in figure 24. The second experiment, seen in figure 25, investigated layering with pastels, paint and sgraffito, and drawing directly into wet paint on cotton canvas. The drawing (figure 26) indicates the process of journaling and working from life, to document the mangrove seedlings before painting. It also witnesses preliminary testing of media and spatial relationships within the panorama format to investigate a series of images of mangrove seedlings, suggestive of rhythm and music.
Figure 24 Jennifer Stuerzl, Study of the Littoral Edge, 2008, sponging and stencilling techniques, oil on cotton canvas, one of two 30.5 x 20.5 cm Figure 25 Jennifer Stuerzl, Study of the Littoral Edge, 2008, sgraffito technique, oil on canvas, one of two, 30.5 x 20.5 cm
Figure 26 Jennifer Stuerzl, Journal Sketch, 2008, pencil on paper
These investigations are later developed into the painting Fragile Nature: Song of the River 2008 (figure 27). In this painting descriptive representations of mangroves are juxtaposed with an illusionistic background of light on mud that develops an ambiguous space, a style seen later in Fragile Nature 3 (figure 35). This descriptive and illusionistic
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page 50 style is re-visited and extended later in the 2010 paintings discussed in Section Five.
Figure 27 Jennifer Stuerzl, Fragile Nature: Song of the River, 2008, oil on polyester canvas, 50 x 150 cm
The third experiment (figure 28) investigates the transparency and opacity of the different media by drawing with paint and shellac on canvas using techniques of brushing, sponging and glazing, a technique in part informed by contemporary Scottish painter Callum
Innes, seen in such paintings as his Monologue 9, 2004.29 Additionally, these experiments investigated the use of a sequence of images that connect to form a diptych, and a small panorama (figure 29).
Figure 28 Jennifer Stuerzl, Experimental Study (diptych), 2008, oil and shellac on cotton canvas, 30 x 20 cm
The diptych-rectangular format experiments were evaluated but not used subsequently, because from critical evaluation I decided that this format could detract from the flow of the image. Therefore, a single panorama format was selected. The studies from my journal (2008, figures 29–31) show the preliminary investigation that was developing into depicting motifs such as the boat, walkways and mud in a range of media including pencil, watercolour, shellac, and pastel on paper in the panorama format.
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Figure 29 Jennifer Stuerzl, Journal Mixed Media Study, 2008, acrylic, pencil, watercolour on paper
Figure 30 Jennifer Stuerzl, Journal Sketch, 2008, pencil on paper
Further examples of early experiments with media and format included three Night River paintings in oil on cotton, linen and polyester canvas. The paintings investigate sponging and rubbing back with rag to depict the night river in an illusionistic style; the polyester surface provided a smooth substrate for the application of glazes and this promoted an integration of media and surface. The paintings were developed from sketches and photographs interpreted imaginatively, with consideration to experience and memory of the River. The integration of theory and studio work is indicated by similarities in mood and tonality to Whistler’s nocturne paintings, in particular his later paintings such as Nocturne in Blue and Gold; Old Battersea Bridge, 1873 (figure 33). Sutton (1963, 64) discusses Whistler’s use of arrangements of colour and repetition to achieve compositional harmony and the imaginative interpretation of the river image.
Whistler’s work has informed the investigation into tonal relationships and uniformity of surface treatment in my painting, seen in Night River 1 (figure 32).
Figure 31 Jennifer Stuerzl, Journal Sketch, 2008, pencil on paper
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Figure 32 Jennifer Stuerzl, Night River 1, 2008, oil on polyester canvas, 167.5 x 45 cm
Figure 33 J.A.M.Whistler, Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Old Battersea Bridge, 1873, oil on canvas, 66.6 x 50.2 cm
The musical reference of Whistler’s nocturne paintings is developed further in the Fragile Nature paintings 1 and 2 (figures 34–35). These develop layering by using underpainting and glazes on polyester canvas. Evaluation of the initial experiments into media indicated that the smooth surface of polyester was more effective than linen or cotton because it enhanced the effects of illusionism. The experiments into media investigated the relationship of surface and medium, and the opaque and transparent effect of oil paint. The paint was applied in different techniques such as impasto, drawing, sponging, ragging, brushing, stencilling, sgraffito, on different substrates and applied opaquely and transparently. These experiments proved useful in representing a range of descriptive motifs and illusionistic effects to depict the human impact on river ecology. Journal drawing was also a valuable reference, as were the many photographs I took of the River. Style In the 2008 paintings, postmodern elements of multiple units, fragments and layering are investigated. We do not live in a world where thought, actions and feelings are separate,
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page 53 but one where they are interconnected and fluid like the river. These paintings reflect a holistic worldview informed by the eco-philosophies and concerns for sustaining biodiversity and complexity discussed in Chapter One. The symbolic elements within the paintings develop a visual language for expressing this worldview. The uprooted mangrove is symbolic of the fragile nature of ecosystems, the bridges evoke interconnections and question our contemporary separateness from nature, and the mud and single fish indicate ecological depletion. The visual language developed in this work is continued and extended throughout the research in different styles; this imagery, and the holistic message it conveys, becomes fundamental to my practice. The paintings in the Fragile Nature and Night River series form the beginning of an enquiry about painting methods that is interwoven with an enquiry about representation, materiality and eco-philosophies, in order to address the human impact on river ecology. Many of the issues and paradoxes of the impact of human activity on the natural environment are visible in works such as Fragile Nature 1 and 3 (figures 34–35).
Figure 34 Jennifer Stuerzl, Fragile Nature 1, 2008, oil on polyester canvas, 19 x 180 cm
Figure 35 Jennifer Stuerzl, Fragile Nature 3, 2008, collage and oil paint on polyester canvas, 19 x 180 cm
These two paintings investigate the littoral edge, because this is where the impact of human activity on the natural environment is most apparent. They represent a fragment of nature, depicted in an illusionistic style overlaid with a descriptive representation of mangrove seedlings and Coke bottles that vary in emphasis and rhythm, and use the repetition of a unit to create a fluid whole, similar in spatial and reading terms to notes in a musical manuscript.30 Painting techniques are further developed with layering, sgraffito and glazes (as noted in the earlier diptych and journal studies, figures 24–25,
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page 54 28). The stylistic layering and repetition of elements in some works creates a compressed, ambiguous space to evoke Rawson’s “river of time”. In Fragile Nature 3 there is a further compounding of surface imagery: the illusionistic background of light on the mud, painted with a palette knife, is layered with descriptive mangroves and Coke bottles depicted with an ambiguous interplay of paint and collage. Colour is used symbolically in the paintings to suggest ecological depletion through reduced water quality. The red in Fragile Nature 1 (figure 34) evokes climate change and the warming of waters, and the waterweed azolla seen in the upper reaches of the River. The colour green seen in Fragile Nature: Nocturne in Green Water, Mangroves and Light (figure 36) evokes the reduced water quality evidenced by green algal bloom – itself a time-related element, encapsulating an idea of decay and change.
Figure 36 Jennifer Stuerzl, Fragile Nature: Nocturne in Green Water, Mangroves and Light, 2008, oil paint on polyester canvas, 182.5 x 30 cm
This series of paintings celebrates the holistic relationship between all living organisms and alludes to the fragile nature of the ecosystem. They show development towards a style that displays the reduction of images to a symbol, spatial ambiguity, layering, multiplicity of elements and the representation of fragments. Many contemporary artists have investigated ecological issues in relation to other rivers and landscapes locally and globally. Gablik (1992, 119) discusses Dominique Mazeaud’s art project of 1987 called The Great Cleansing of the Rio Grande River: a project that involved cleaning out the river by collecting refuse once a month with friends, using garbage bags donated by the city. Australian artist John Wolseley also engages with ecological issues and time, and investigates alternative ways to represent landscape. In his paintings he layers images that record multiple views of the landscape. Through the juxtaposition of descriptive details with more general aerial and topographic views he
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page 55 breaks from mimetic representation. Grishin (2006, 53–4) says of this:
It is almost like a process of deconstruction, where systems of fixed linear or aerial perspective are abandoned and the land surface and the various elements on it are meticulously recorded. In this process of recording, subjective feelings, and the way the body feels about the landscape as it travels over terrain, play a more significant role than any rules of optical illusion.
In Upside-down Flowers Leptosema Chambersii, 1982 (figure 37), Wolseley’s connection to the landscape is expressed through subjective journal records, descriptive illustrations and aerial maps that communicate his particular experience of place and time, articulated in the complexity of layering and detailed recording of the process of his work.31
Figure 37 John Wolseley, Upside-down Flowers Leptosema Chambersii, 1982, watercolour, pencil and found ochres on paper, 102 x 65 cm
Evaluation My practice in 2008, informed by Wolseley, was moving away from the traditional landscape mode that included horizon line, aerial and linear perspective, to a mode of representation that involved engaging with place, and painting layered imagery. By removing the horizon line in these works I intended to question the aesthetics of traditional landscape representation and express river time and an organic perception of nature, as discussed by eco-feminists such as Carolyn Merchant. This investigation was continued in my stylistic experiments in 2009.
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page 56 The Brisbane River paintings made in 2008 raise questions and explore issues, intending to heighten awareness of the fragile nature of the river ecosystems. The paintings interpret and investigate river imagery, media, and painting styles; and reference relevant philosophies and artists. As a body of work the paintings engage with issues surrounding the Brisbane River, including its changed state over time, ecological depletion, reduced water quality and how it inhabits river time. This is evidenced in motifs that indicate ecological depletion such as mud, debris, mangrove seedlings, and the red and green colours of polluted water. Reference to river time is implicit in the cyclical rhythms of nature evoked through the harmonious integration of surface and media, and allusion to Whistler and musical rhythms. The research, and peer review from the confirmation presentation, supported the continuation of this format and style – but with a caution to avoid the too-decorative use of the panorama.
River Story Series 2009: oil on polyester canvas In 2009 I continued to investigate the panorama format. However, I extended the visual language and introduced greater movement and complexity, investigated by fragmenting the painting vertically through subtle tonal divisions to disrupt the linear progression of the panorama, and by introducing new motifs such as the tidal or wave motif. This investigation was extended by field trips to document localities through photographs, and journal recordings of local features, such as water quality and land use, plants, the river course and the local habitat. I conversed with scientist Di Tarte (as related in Chapter One) to examine the ecological issues of water quality and the sustainability of the river ecosystem. This formed an invaluable reference resource for the development of the 2009 paintings that continue to ask questions and investigate the impact of human activity on the river ecology, since it alerted me to such phenomena as increased salinity and contamination of the river, tidal flow, sediment load, habitat loss and reduced biodiversity.
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page 57 I documented the littoral edge of the River through hundreds of photographs, from its upper reaches near Linville to Wivenhoe Dam and the main river course to Brisbane City and to the lower reaches (figures 38–41).32
Figure 38 Jennifer Stuerzl, Brisbane River, Partly Submerged Tree Trunk, Wivenhoe Dam, 2009, photograph Figure 39 Jennifer Stuerzl, Brisbane River, Native Callistemon and Eucalypts, Wivenhoe Dam, 2009, photograph
Figure 40 Map of the Upper Brisbane Catchment (Google Maps 2009)
Figure 41 Map of the Lower Brisbane River: including Colleges Crossing, Indooroopilly, and Wivenhoe Dam (Google Maps 2012)
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page 58 Format The paintings in 2009 included a series of fifteen large panorama oil paintings on polyester canvas approximately 183 x 30 cm, as well as some smaller paintings approximately 61 x 30 cm, informed by theoretical research and experience of the River gained during my extensive survey of the upper catchment and the Lower Brisbane River. While the panorama format continued the earlier research of 2008, my investigation into format in 2009 shows a tendency towards experimentation with larger formats than were used before. However, as the year progressed, I began to develop smaller panoramas and diptychs, a shift in scale indicating that I was continuing to test the format. One reason for this shift was the physical difficulty of carrying, moving, and then storing the larger scale works within a small studio space. Also, I began to question the visual impact of the large panorama format on the viewer’s interpretation and reading of the paintings (see the evaluation of this section, below). Media The 2009 paintings increased the scope of the research into media and relationships between different compositional elements seen in 2008. The oil paint experiments were extended to include the use of metallic paint, referencing the photographic process and evoking a mechanistic perception of nature that was being questioned in the paintings. The silver and pewter colours continued to be explored throughout 2009; layers of paint were applied by gradually building up the surface and applying glazes, and these in turn led to the development of layers of imagery. Style The paintings in 2009 developed a symbolic and abstracted schema, as seen in River Story 1 (figure 43). They persisted with the 2008 schema that removed the horizon, and focused on layering and compounding the micro and macro aspects of landscape within one image. This style development was informed by Australian abstract painter Yvonne Audette, who uses abstracted, layered motifs within her paintings.33 Moreover, Audette’s reference to nature, time, music, space and transience also resonated with my painting
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page 59 and the intention to evoke river time. Audette’s method of resolving and combining the abstracted, the symbolic, and the figurative in her paintings can be seen in works such as Violin Concerto in D Major, 2003 (figure 42).
Figure 42 Yvonne Audette, Violin Concerto in D Major, 2003, gouache and ink, 53 x 36 cm
John Wolseley’s painting also connected strongly with these works through his descriptive representation of natural history specimens. Reference to the nineteenth-century botanical illustration of William Buelow Gould is evident in botanical and zoological details in my paintings (an influence continued into the Claybord paintings in 2010). The reference to Gould in my work invokes pre- colonial settlement and the once diverse ecology, contrasting with the reduced biodiversity since colonial settlement. A further significant element in this reference to nineteenth- century botanical illustration is that the collection of species for scientific taxonomic classification frequently led to the plundering of species for curiosity or commercial gain, during the course of colonial settlement and after. So, in an earlier generation, the botanical illustrations of Sydney Parkinson (c. 1745–71) were intended to complement dried specimens and scientific notes (Flower 1975, 50) During 2009 I continued the research enquiry surrounding ecology and time, media and style in a series of four large, semi-abstract panoramas. The flow motif used in the paintings offers a metaphor for the waves of change that human activity has imposed on the River since white settlement around 1825. These changes include the moulding of the River, the blasting of rock bars at Lytton near the mouth of the river, and mining of gravel from the riverbed (Gregory 1996, 38–52). The series includes River Story 1 (figure
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page 60 43) where the red flow line symbolizes the physical change to the river evidenced by its tidal inundation. The interconnections suggested by the represented layering of marine and plant forms found in the Brisbane River are significant in the work, because they evoke the past complexity of river ecology and its depletion through human use over time. The use of red recalls the Fragile Nature paintings, such as Fragile Nature 1 and 3, 2008, and as in these earlier paintings, there is reference to climate change, the inundation of rising waters, and the human impact on waterways.
Figure 43 Jennifer Stuerzl, River Story 1, 2009, oil paint and metallic oil paint, 182.5 x 46 cm
The style is extended with the subtle tonal division of the canvas horizontally and vertically to develop borders and sections within the painting that investigate temporal and spatial elements. Several new motifs are added to the mud, water and mangrove motifs previously used: these include the fish motif and the flow lines of the wave and tidal motifs seen in figure 43.34 The intention in these paintings was to suggest through the flow lines a creative and organic interconnection between all facets of the River in time and space. Recognizing a possible dichotomy within these paintings between an organic form that can reference both the universal form of the female, and organic perceptions of nature and time, the waveform became more continuous, to suggest the water image of time – a continuous flow, achieved by layering the motif within the composition. This motif recurs in later paintings, where the continuous flow evokes different time frames within a single painting; for instance in River Story: Red Wave, Callistemon and Eucalypts 2 (figure 44 ).
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Figure 44 Jennifer Stuerzl, River Story: Red Wave, Callistemons and Eucalypts 2, 2009, oil and metallic oil on polyester, 182.5 x 30 cm
Stylistically this painting extends the visual language of the earlier River Story paintings (e.g. figure 43) by including descriptive plant motifs. The vertical shifts between sections of the format are more apparent in these paintings, but they continue to refer to rhythms in music and nature. The repeated motifs of the callistemon and eucalypt, applied in sequence, are emphasized by the use of silver paint, and a tonal representation of the subject reminiscent of photography. This photographic reference is significant because it reflects the research process and journaling that was used to create the paintings. Moreover, the tonal range and burnt sienna colour within the panorama format are reminiscent of traditional sepia photographs; the linear arrangement also evokes snapshots of repeated images that are captured when taking a series of photos of one location within a set time frame. The virtual elimination of colour, with the exception of red, seen in River Story: Red Wave, Callistemon and Eucalypts 2, (figure 44 ), is intended to emphasise the stress and depletion of nature arising from human imposition upon the ecology of the Brisbane River. Examples of this ecological degradation include the eutrophication of the water in its upper reaches, and the resultant extreme growth of the native plant, called azolla, and river hyacinths. University of Queensland scientist Malani Chaloupka (2001, 1031) writes, “Eutrophication involves chronic enrichment with nutrients from agriculture, domestic and industrial sources that result in decreased ecosystem health and impairment of ecosystem services such as clean water and nutrient recycling.” Excessive algal growth is followed by the death and decay of some algae. As it dies, bacterial decomposition consumes oxygen, with consequent polluting effects. Because of the lack of oxygen below the surface of the water, many fish species cannot survive, permitting scavenger species such as catfish, leeches and worms
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page 62 to take their place (Turk, Turk and Wittes 1972, 120).35 The long-term process of researching the River not only included photographs, but also diary drawings of plants observed from life (e.g. callistemon and water hyacinth drawn at the river’s edge, figures 45–46) that, along with research into botanical and zoological illustrations by nineteenth-century and earlier botanical artists such as Sydney Parkinson and William Buelow Gould, informed the descriptive aspect of the work of 2009.
Figure 45 Jennifer Stuerzl, Journal Sketch of Callistemon, 2008, pencil on paper Figure 46 Jennifer Stuerzl, Journal Sketch of Water Hyacinth, 2008, pencil on paper
The painting style is articulated with fine brushwork, juxtaposed with the abstracted background that is sponged and glazed to evoke river water and suggest temporal and spatial effects. The expression of ecological issues through symbolic use of colour continues through all the work made at this time and is particularly evident in the use of green water in River Story: Deep River 1, 4 and 5 (figures 50–51) that associates reduced water quality with algal blooms, a model further extended in 2010 in the green Claybord paintings and in the green water represented in the 2011 paintings on copper.
Figure 47 Jennifer Stuerzl, River Story: Callistemon, Eucalypt, Mullet and Turtles, 2009, oil paint and metallic oil paint on polyester canvas, 182.5 x 30 cm
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page 63 The layered composition of the preceding paintings is extended through heightened colour, more descriptive layers, and a greater range of botanical and zoological species in River Story: Past and Present, (figure 48).
Figure 48 Jennifer Stuerzl, River Story: Past and Present, 2009, oil paint and metallic oil paint on polyester canvas, 50.5 x 137 cm
In this painting the botanical and zoological motifs are inspired by the vegetation seen at the source during research field trips to Linville and the upper reaches of the Brisbane River in March 2009. Callistemon, acacias, vines and eucalypts are depicted, and fish- spirals and turtles evoke movement within the painting, to suggest different time- and space-frames that represent the imagined past river, and present river ecology. So, the abundance of species refers to the past river ecology that has been depleted by human use and clearing; this depletion and changes in climate are symbolized by the red glaze, an all-over flow of colour that has broken the confines of the wave motif line seen in earlier 2009 paintings. The red all-over glaze also refers back to the 2008 Fragile Nature 1 (figure 34), recalling the warming arising from climate change, and reduced biodiversity through ecological depletion. The layering of imagery in Paul Klee’s paintings through symbols and colour has also informed the development of my painting techniques. The investigation of this is evident in the 2009 River Story paintings. What was and what is can be seen simultaneously in paintings such as River Story: Past and Present, 2009. Although Klee used a different style, his painting The Legend of the Nile, 1937 (figure 49) is an example of a technique that refers to the musical device of polyphony in which each layer is like
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page 64 a separate voice or story that makes up the whole image – also in the context of a great river.
Figure 49 Paul Klee, The Legend of the Nile, 1937, pastel on cotton on coloured pastel on burlap, 69 x 61cm
During 2009 several paintings in this series were developed simultaneously in the studio. They include the River Story: Deep River series of paintings that contain botanical and zoological references, together with an organic perception of nature seen in compounding and layering of imagery (figures 50–51).
Figure 50 Jennifer Stuerzl, River Story: Deep River 1, 2009, oil paint and metallic oil paint on polyester canvas 61 x 30 cm
Figure 51 Jennifer Stuerzl, River Story: Deep River 4, 5 (diptych), 2009, oil on polyester, 40 x 80 cm
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page 65 Evaluation As the work progressed I began to question how effective the abstract and symbolic style was in engaging the viewer in an ecological reformist agenda. Rigorous evaluation through exhibition tested this mode of representation through the audience’s response to the paintings. The 2008–2009 research culminated in November 2009 with an exhibition of the River Story works at Tribune Street QCA gallery in Brisbane. Some specific questions emerged from this evaluation: first, does the use of the panorama format allow immersion in the subject? Second, is the style of abstraction and symbolism the most effective way to address the representation of the impact of human activity on river ecology in conjunction with river time? Thirdly, within a postmodern context, what styles and format would be more effective than the panorama and the abstract that I had investigated? Critical analysis and reflection on these questions enabled me to assess the benefits of what I had learned so far and what I needed to discard to continue with the research. From this evaluation of the exhibition, the investigation of the panorama format proved to be most successful when it was used on a smaller scale, or as a diptych or triptych that forms a small panorama, such as in the River Story: Deep River paintings (figures 50–51). The more successful smaller panorama maintained the expanse of the river and allowed for visual immersion in the image. In contrast, the larger panorama had the potential to become repetitive, and possibly merely decorative, because each motif, although slightly different, could be visually interpreted as the same. Theoretical research suggested that the linear sequence of the panorama and painted motif could be interpreted as being associated with a Western perception of time as a mechanistic construct, like clock time, and so allied with perceptions of a patriarchal worldview. It was my intention in the paintings to depict an organic and holistic perception of time, rather than a rational and ordered mode. This would include time depicted through circadian rhythms, the spiral that suggests movement into depth, and layering and compounding of images to represent different zones of time and space within the one painting. However, there existed a possibility that the linear progression of the motifs
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page 66 and the use of the panorama could confuse my preferred reading of the work. Similarly, the introduction of the line or wave motif in these paintings, as an abstract element, is open to multiple interpretations, including reference to environmental pollution, climate change, blood, and universal concepts of the female, both because of the organic form of the motif, and because of its red colour’s association with menstrual blood in this context. All of this proved to detract from the primary focus of the paintings on river ecology. For such reasons it was becoming clear that the extreme format of the panorama was a less well adapted format for representing the question of river ecology and the human impact upon it. From the research process and evaluation of the exhibition, it became evident that the most effective paintings were those that used illusionistic and descriptive motifs, rather than the abstract and symbolic style, because these addressed the question of river ecology by referencing colonial and traditional styles within a postmodern context. For example, Fragile Nature 3 (with Coke Bottles) (figure 35) and theRiver Story: Deep River paintings (figures 50–51) are arguably more successful than the abstract and symbolic River Story paintings (figure 43). TheDeep River panoramas, because of their small scale and fewer repeated motifs, allowed reading of the images in a single view, rather than requiring the need to scan along the horizon of the panorama. For these reasons, the smaller panorama and rectangular format, and the descriptive and illusionistic style were presenting as solutions to the repetition and decoration regarded as problematic in the larger wave and flow paintings. Building from the research analysis evaluation of the 2009 paintings, I proposed a new series of paintings to resolve some of the problems related to the panorama format and motifs, and the abstract style. This was initiated in 2010 by a series of experiments into formats, working with the descriptive and illusionistic style that had proved most effective in the 2009 paintings. In the 2010 paintings (guided by critical evaluation of the 2009 paintings and further experiments in studio research) I proposed new ideas and methods of working with media, format and style to find an alternative way to address
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page 67 the research question. This will be discussed in relation to the fifth body of work – the Claybord paintings. However, while the 2009 paintings were developing in the studio I had also commenced a different series of works at the littoral edge. These research works connected with the River directly and therefore enabled me to extend the research into very different processes that enriched my experience and perception of the River.
River Traces Series 2009–10: mud, sediment and graphite on polyester canvas The River Traces are site-specific ephemeral works on polyester canvas that investigated river time, inundation and the human impact on river ecology by working with the Brisbane River at the littoral edge near the location of my studio. The research process experiments with different ways of creating art, responding to the River, and reflecting knowledge gained from theory research. The River Traces increased my immediate experience of the River and question human imposition upon nature through direct work at the river’s edge to capture on canvas the actual earth residue from the river’s tidal flow. Through this process, the River Traces question the scientific and rational perception of time and nature by connecting with the rhythm of the water and its sediment patterns. Ironically these deposits and tidal inflows are the legacy of human use of the River since colonial settlement. The water quality of the Brisbane River is affected by rural and urban use: scientists Duke and Mackenzie (2011, 1–2) disclose that the river bears sediment which carries clay containing chemical herbicides and nutrients that wash into the river after flooding. Fine dust from urban areas and copper and zinc from pipes and roofs also enter the river from storm water drains. Human imposition on the river ecology is further underlined by Brisbane journalist Edmund Burke (2007, 3): dredging of the river began in 1962 and became “an underwater quarry”, as a result of which the river water became brown and muddy. The flow of the river water has also been affected by human activity: Gregory (1996, 36) states “A vigorous programme of dredging, damming and blasting which began during the 1860s started the intense human intervention which changed the Brisbane River and its tributary creeks during the ensuing 130 years”. This
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page 68 included the removal of the rock bar near the mouth of the river. According to Tarte (pers. comm., 26 June 2008), the removal of the rock bar allowed seawater to flow upstream and create a tidal estuary, which changed the habitat at the edge of the river, making it no longer suitable for nesting birds such as swans. In 1974–80 the Wivenhoe Dam was built as a response to the devastation of the 1974 flood. Mackenzie (pers. comm., July 2011) believes that the Wivenhoe Dam changes the river from a free flowing waterway with variable seasonal flow, affecting the flow of sediment-laden water, which could be released with great force depositing sediment out to sea. The river flow, the sediment-laden water and deposits of earth are indicators of the extent of human impact on the River, which the River Traces capture on canvas, a physical witness to the complex interconnections between the human use of the River and its ecology. The River Traces are intended to draw attention to the river’s changed state over time through marks created on the canvas by the working of the cyclical tidal flow and inundation, and the residue of earth deposited on its surface. As part ofthe process of creating the work I immersed polyester canvas directly into the water. Over a period of several days, earth residue accumulated onto its surface and thus recorded tidal inundations. To work with the river I later drew and sponged back into these surfaces with graphite powder and materials from site, such as mud and mangrove twigs. Finally, I re-exposed the surface to rain over a period of up to several hours, depending on the rate of downpour and the suitability of the surface. The process developed my understanding of the river at a micro and macro level. Through research informed by local scientists and historians and experience of changes in the water, earth and plants at the river’s edge, I became more empathetic and increasingly aware of broader environmental issues, such as reduced biodiversity, water quality and the threat to river ecosystems caused by inundation. Format and media The River Traces on polyester canvas were begun in September 2009 and they continued the panorama format that was already evolving in the River Story paintings of 2009.
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page 69 The size varied from 20 cm x 72 cm to approximately 20 cm x 60 cm. The traces began with several experiments using different substrates: watercolour paper, linen primed and un-primed, and polyester canvas pre-primed. Other investigations included the use of the rectangular format and the panorama in different sizes ranging from 20 cm x 30 cm to 20 cm x 72 cm. My assessment of the surfaces concluded that the polyester canvas was the most suitable. Its fine texture and manufactured properties contrast with the organic elements of water mud and recorded the fine traces more clearly. The watercolour paper and the linen, with their course texture selected for durability, were not chosen as a substrate because they did not hold the traces of mud and sediment as well. Moreover, they proved to offer a more difficult surface to work back into than the polyester. Media The colloidal river water formed cyclical traces on the polyester canvas indicating the inundation and the inflow and outflow of water. These natural actions developed marks independent of my conscious mark making. The selections that I made in the process of creating the works included immersion of the canvas at different times, such as at full moon, king tide, tsunami, and low tide, and the duration of the immersion. After these processes, a range of drawing media were investigated, including watercolour, oil pastel, graphite pencil, black ink, dried clumps of mud from the littoral edge, and liquid mud collected from the river in a container. The initial watercolour and naturalistic drawings that I did on the surface with the mud traces appeared too colourful and too literal a depiction of the subject. Because they referenced traditional drawing they detracted from the intention to engage with the river and the organic quality of the mud, with the random marks that formed on the surface, and with the fluidity and flux of the river. As an alternative to watercolour I tested graphite powder and found it provided a tonal complexity that integrated with the sediment to evoke the flow of water on the surface of the canvas. The process of working developed in stages intuitively, depending on the marks the river left on the surface, and my response to these. As a result of the experiments I decided to use a 30 x 180 cm support to maintain a uniform format with the 2009 panorama paintings,
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page 70 so the panorama River Traces provided a consistency of format with the studio paintings in 2009, even though the material and techniques were different and my studio painting changed to the rectangular format in 2010. Examples of experiments in format and details of mud traces and drawing with graphite and mud can be seen in the figures 52–53.
Figure 52 Jennifer Stuerzl, River Traces 2, 2010, polyester canvas submerged in water at the Brisbane River’s littoral edge
Figure 53 Jennifer Stuerzl, River Traces (details), 2010, polyester canvas with graphite and sediment
Style The experience of accumulated memories of mud, tidal waters, and observed fish and plants, informed my evolving representations of the river and time. Therefore, through the process of working with the river in the River Traces, I questioned accepted practices of art making and the rational scientific and holistic perceptions of nature. I found this body of work aligned with Gablik (1992, 22) who argues that
Beyond Cartesian dualism is the knowledge that you cannot break up the whole. As we begin to see the world through the lens of ecology, we also begin to reshape our view of ourselves. The holistic paradigm is bringing inner and outer – subjective and objective – worlds closer together. The “observer” is a notion that belonged to the classical way of looking at the world. The observer could approach the world without taking part. But this is not the case within a holistic view.36
Having engaged with holistic perceptions of time and ecology, my work began to be informed by artists working in this mode, such as Susanne McLean and Dominique
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page 71 Mazeaud. Their work reflects Gablik’s concepts of the artist, and practice that is not gallery focused, but connects with ecology, science and the community. The River Traces evolved from an intention to connect with the local river, with scientists and historians, and to question human perceptions of nature and the process of art making. The process engaged with the river and the tactile and sensory aspects of texture and surfaces, and the work engaged with time’s complexity, including aspects of experience and memory discussed by Rawson (see Chapter One). Although he uses a different medium, the photographer Jem Southam also informs these works by his implied references to time and the threat of inundation and climate change seen in his Lynmouth series of photographs, that capture instances of inundation over a period of years, and reference by implication both the history and threat of inundation. Evaluation The process of working at the River’s edge to create the river traces was a positive ritual that fostered a connection with nature and river time. The ritual of participating with the river and reflecting on the conditions of inundation derived from a series of processes that enriched my experience and memories of the river. The processes include researching, participating, reflecting, selecting, submerging, exposing the canvases to rain and weather effects, and working back into the surfaces and repeating this process. Because of the site-specific process of working, the River Traces were pivotal to my research of the River. This is because they informed later paintings, generated ideas and explored the possibilities of an experimental approach to the subject. Furthermore, they engaged with creating art that has the element of chance – the random mark and the recording of the process of river inundation; change over time; and a creative process that collaborated with the river rather than imposing an objective interpretation of the subject. This body of work had the potential to be extended further with the inclusion of video and sound to capture other sensory aspects of the river. I had also collected huge amounts of rubbish from the locality over four years of researching the River, potential material for visual or documentary reference, or for future installation-based work, but
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page 72 this was washed away with the flood in 2011. However, I evaluated the River Traces in the context of my earlier research paintings and decided to extend the research informed by traditions of landscape painting rather than by site-specific works. I could see that this work might form the basis for continued future research, but other theory research was directing my studio experiments towards an investigation that combined the micro and macro aspect of location with representation, colonialism and traditionalism in painting. The process employed in making the series titled River Traces is significant for me because it connects with the physical location of the site of my studio research. This work brings together research into the local history and science of the River, informed by scientists and authors such as Gregory, Tarte, Duke and Mackenzie. The River Traces produced art by working with the elements of site such as water and mud, sediment and mangrove twigs, recognizing the contamination of the water and sediment that indicates the human imposition on river ecology. The concept of inundation is significant in the work literally, with the periodic flooding of the River and the regular inundation of the riverbank with the tides. Inundation as a theme is continued throughout the research, seen in the 2010 Inundation Claybord paintings and 2011 Inundation copper paintings, investigated through different formats, media and style. The engagement with Rawson’s “river time” and the process of working in collaboration with the River and the tidal inundations questions the rational mechanistic perception of nature through my art process. Consequently, these works find a different form from the earlier research. They enquire into the process of image making and question perceptions of a scientific and rational view of time and nature. The materiality of the River Traces raises different problems and solutions from the representation of the human impact on river ecology. The River Traces address the paradox of the River’s apparently “natural” cyclic rhythms and earth residue, while acknowledging the human impact on these. In the 2010 Claybord paintings and 2011– 12 paintings on copper the current investigation into materials and river ecology, and a connection with the River, is extended into works that investigate the ecology at the
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page 73 littoral edge, and address colonial and contemporary perceptions of nature. However, a fourth, intervening, body of work that is site-specific, ephemeral and documented through photography, the River with Quadrat photographs, was undertaken in 2009.
River with Quadrat 2009: documented with photographs
The River with Quadrat body of work investigates a very different research process from the previous bodies of work. A quadrat is defined as marking out “small areas selected as samples for detailed study” (Cronquist 1961, 800), and the work proposes an alternative way to analyse critically and represent the human imposition on river ecology, informed by rigorous conceptual research and conducted at the littoral edge in several locations. The process commenced in 2009 and recorded my experiments with the water, mangroves and a domestic clothes-line to enquire into the complexity of the different degrees of human connection and disconnection with nature and river time. Each work was ephemeral and was removed after it was photographed leaving no trace. The works were made at locations including the upper reaches of the River near Linville, Wivenhoe Dam, Colleges Crossing, and outside my studio near the middle reaches of the Brisbane River. Hundreds of photographs were taken over several days and twenty of these form the River with Quadrat series. Each location includes reference to the human traces seen at the littoral edge, such as the murky water, weedy growth of the water fern, azolla, cattle hooves showing disturbance to the littoral edge, tree stumps, debris such as bottles, and underwater and above water views. Perceptions of time and nature such as the mechanistic and rational, as well as perceptions that are open and organic and reference Rawson’s “river time”, are investigated through scientific measuring of nature with the quadrat. In the River with Quadrat photographs the selection of a reflexive space is marked out by the scientific-ecological measure of the quadrat, which is characteristic of Western culture and the “master story” that is critiqued by eco-feminism. The overt domesticity of the yellow clothes-line demarcating the quadrat proposes a feminist statement to
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page 74 deconstruct the reason/nature narrative through ironic juxtaposition with the mangrove, mud and inundation at the littoral edge. My process of working, documented in the photographs, investigates the quadrat in different configurations. For example, a rational perception of nature as separate is evidenced in the closed quadrat in River with Quadrat 1 the transition of the quadrat that is partially open but also closed in River with Quadrat 2, and the more complex, fluid and lyrical perception of nature that includes metaphorical connections and river time evident in River with Quadrat 3 (figures 54–56). The Australian artist Bonita Ely’s research into degradation of waterways and the scientific measuring of nature has also informed my research in a number of ways. Her photograph series Drought: The Murray’s Estuary (2009) documented the river’s edge from its source to the sea. On her website, Ely (2009) comments that, as part of her work, she “constructed temporary grids that mimicked the cartographic mapping of minutia in the river’s edge at five locations”. My research, which directly engages with the River, shares similar ecological concerns, such as reduced water quality, biodiversity, and the human imposition on nature; but my work also obliquely comments upon methods of measuring nature scientifically. The ironic investigation of the river-with-clothes-line punctures the dualistic reason/nature perception of the “master story” that Plumwood identifies (1993, 196). It questions the rationality of scientifically measuring and documenting nature and, by alluding to the “river of time” in River with Quadrat 3, it articulates a rationality that fosters participatory connections within nature and river time. Format The format of these works relates to the rectangle documented in the photograph, but the actual work is ephemeral and free of the confines of format because of the type of process-based work and conceptual framework they represent.
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page 75 Media Materials of the site, such as water, plants and earth, form the basic media for these works: a section of the river marked off with an imposed cord, a yellow clothes-line acting as the quadrat. The work participates in the symbiotic relationship between photography and art, as the photograph remains the only evidence of the process once the clothes- line is removed after it is documented. The relationship may be described as symbiotic since sometimes a photograph may itself be identified as the art object, while sometimes a photograph may purely document art (in this case, site specific and ephemeral in nature), and this interplay, divergence and inter-reliance defines the symbiosis. This engagement with river ecology investigates organic perceptions of nature through the materiality of a process that produces works that are themselves ephemeral (figures 54–56).
Figure 54 Jennifer Stuerzl, River with Quadrat 1, Upper Reaches with Cow Hoof Print, Near Linville, 2009 Figure 55 Jennifer Stuerzl, River with Quadrat 2, Wivenhoe Dam with Tree Stump, 2009 Figure 56 Jennifer Stuerzl, River with Quadrat 3, Indooroopilly Reach, 2009
An investigation into ecology, time and media is enacted in the River Traces and River with Quadrat photographs. These works develop an empathy with the River and a greater depth of understanding of the time, geography, ecology, and the micro and macro aspects of location. The research works in 2009 and 2010 experiment with the organic perception of nature and river time by questioning the rational and scientific measuring and perception of nature. This enquiry and empathy with the River directed the research in 2010 towards a new mode of representation in painting, to address by other means similar ecological and philosophic enquires to those explored in the River with Quadrat photographs. On completing the River with Quadrat, the challenge was how to extend these concepts of river time and ecology into my subsequent paintings. As a result I decided to
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page 76 turn to specific examples of Australian nineteenth-century painting that focused on local ecology. This was because the colony of Brisbane, founded in the nineteenth century, was moulded by the legacy of a perceptual framework that saw nature as a resource for human use; and because this reductionist worldview has resulted in the river ecology as it is today. The processes researched in the River Traces and River with Quadrat photographs provided a connection with a holistic worldview, through my experience of working with the River at the littoral edge. These bodies of work interrogate the scientific rationalist measuring of nature and record the human effects on the River over time. This experience and research informed the series of paintings on Claybord that developed in 2010.
River and Inundation Paintings 2010: oil paint and oil pastels on Claybord During 2010 a series of twenty-five Claybord and board paintings 40.5 x 20.5 cm, and eight larger paintings on board 110 cm x 90 cm were created that comprise the fifth body of work made during the research. The layering of motifs begun in 2009 was continued in 2010 with illusionistic and descriptive styles juxtaposed, but other considerations also informed the work. The research process developed in 2010 critically analysed and tested format, media and style in the pursuit of an alternative representation in painting to that of the 2009 paintings in the panorama format. The 2010 paintings maintained their conceptual focus on time, ecology, science, philosophy and colonialism, but the new paintings extend the earlier painting research processes, leading to a re-evaluation in several areas. These included: first, initial testing of the rectangular format and the introduction of the horizon; second, experiments with media and the interaction of substrate and paint; third, the critical analysis and evaluation of compositional and material correspondences, such as interrelationship and placement of scale and colour, and selection of motifs; fourth, how to question effectively the impact of the traditional rationalist perception of nature on river ecology in painting; fifth, how to extend the concepts of colonialism, philosophies, and temporal theories, that inform the River with Quadrat photographs, into painting.
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page 77 Format In January and February of 2010 I experimented with a series of paintings in a range of formats, such as a small panorama and rectangles in various different sizes. From these experiments the rectangular format 40.5 cm x 30.5 cm was selected as the small format for the 2010 paintings and 110 cm x 90 cm for the larger format. This choice was made because both formats are domestic in scale, and therefore relate to an intimate interpretation of the river subject within my practice. Moreover, the rectangle has the potential to create more immediacy in the viewer’s perception of the subject than the panorama. This is because the work may be read in one view inclusively from the bottom of the painting to the top, rather than as a scanned sequence of images within a panorama. It would follow that, if the rectangle enables greater immersion in the subject by offering a window into the scene, then this format would be beneficial in engaging the viewer in the paintings. The rectangular format in the vertical is generally regarded as the portrait format, relating to an upright subject. However, in my paintings in 2010 I chose the vertical, in preference to the horizontal rectangle that is generally used for the landscape format, because my intention was to depict an intimate, subjective, perceptual study of the River rather than a literal scene or topographical copy, more naturally associated with the horizontal view. This premise was developed in both the smaller Claybord paintings and the larger works on board. Media In January and February 2010 I experimented with media such as oil, acrylic paint, and oil sticks upon the Claybord surface, canvas and board. These initial experiments tested substrates and how to finesse the application of paint. The Claybord surface is manufactured from board sealed with unfired clay, compressed to form a smooth, white, porous surface. Claybord was selected because its surface enhanced the clarity and luminosity of the colour and illusionistic effects that I sought for the paintings seen in Inundation (figure 57).
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page 78
Figure 57 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2010, oil on Claybord, 40.5 x 30.5 cm
During the research in 2010 I investigated media and material correspondences between elements and design principles such as colour, size and the placement of motifs within the painting. I found these correspondences influenced the perceptual and psychological interpretation of the subject. For example, in the Sequence of Sixteen Paintings (figure
58), in each painting the fish is different in its colour, scale, and placement; each painting also varies with subtle shifts in its composition, including the placement of the horizon. Within each, the void in the centre of the painting enhances the intended perception of depletion, and the psychological austerity of the work.
Figure 58 Jennifer Stuerzl, Sequence of Sixteen Paintings, 2010, oil on Claybord
Materiality within the paintings was explored in several ways; my intention was to emphasize the fish motif, and to make it look stuck-on by drawing a contour so sharp that it contrasts decisively with the more illusionistic water: this can be seen in River (figures 59–60). I considered the possibility of using collage to represent the fish (a technique used for the Coke bottle in Fragile Nature 3, 2008, figure 35). However, I chose to paint the motif, and in so doing, to juxtapose the descriptive rendering of the painted fish with the suggestive illusionism of the waterscape. I investigated the possibility of creating a separate fish painting alongside a corresponding river painting, but this approach did not achieve the intended temporal, spatial and stylistic ambiguities that are achieved when the fish is
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page 79 included within the composition. Instead, the juxtaposition of disparate painting styles within one single painting enabled the viewer to undertake their own perceptual shifts, and therefore question at an individual level their perceptions of nature, river time and its depiction in these paintings. This solution to the representational possibilities seemed to be effective, since the material correspondences permitted integrated compositions in both the small and larger format seen in the River paintings figures 59–61.
Figure 59 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on Claybord, 40.5 x 30.5 cm Figure 60 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on Claybord, 40.5 x 30.5 cm Figure 61 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on board, 110 x 90 cm
Another investigation into scale was to produce a series of two to three paintings that could be rearranged. Some of these were to include the fish motif, others to represent the illusionistic, inundated landscape vista that references river time, nineteenth-century colonial painting of the river, and the contemporary Brisbane River itself. This led to a series that investigated shifting spatial and temporal frames, rather than a sequence of images reflective of linear time (River, figures 62–64).
Figure 62 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on board, 110 x 90 cm Figure 63 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on board, 90 x 110 x 90 cm Figure 64 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on board, 110 x 90 cm
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page 80 The paintings have been simply titled River because they address in broader terms central aspects of river ecology, including ecological depletion, changes over time to river ecology, and the impact of culture on nature. Moreover, they represent a generalized river that is constructed from research into multiple views of the Brisbane River. The paintings are not intended to be viewed as a series that connects sequentially in an ordered succession, implying a dependence on clock time, but as a series that include multiple time- and space-frames within one painting. To the same end, the fish types represented are not named in the titles, because this could detract from the broader issues presented in the work. However, the fish are actually those that can survive in polluted waters, including the catfish, toados, and mullet; the goldfish exemplifies the domesticated fish, and symbolically represents escaped species of carp, and thus, the legacy of colonial use of the River ecosystem. Style The stylistic investigations can be seen in the enquiry into the placement and integration of motifs within the paintings. First, the painting Inundation (figure 65) is an example of several paintings on this subject that investigate the placement of a high horizon line, the central void and schematic shoreline, that are significant for the perceptual psychology of the painting. I decided to keep the horizon in the compositional register above the middle, because from previous experiments I found that the high horizon compelled the impression of inundation into the spectator’s psychological space, and developed an illusion of the warping of the picture space – a distortion between foreground and horizon – and I regard this as desirable because it adds to the ambiguity within the paintings. A comparison of the effect of varying horizon levels is seen between figures 65–66.
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Figure 65 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2010, oil on Claybord, 40.5 x 30.5 cm Figure 66 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on Claybord, 40.5 x 30.5 cm
Contemporary Australian artist Ian Grant shares a similar interest in illusionary space and shifting horizon lines.Grant (2012, 126–7) says that his works are concerned with
. . . imaging of experience through sky and land patterning and illusionary space. One theme involves low-horizon earth sky view points, another employs land-dominant patterning with higher horizons. . .
The extent of the investigation in my painting and the effect of the shifting horizon are evident when the works are viewed together in a sequence, as with the Inundation and River paintings (figure 58). It is interesting that, arranged in this notional way, an echo of the original waveform motif is generated.37 Second, the paintings initiate an investigation into the juxtaposition of illusionistic and schematic styles against the middle ground of the naturalistic, watery surface of the river. The space or void in the middle ground develops a focus on the water in the paintings with high horizons, while in the paintings with lower horizons the sky and expanse of water take on more prominence. The focus on the water and the void near the centre of the painting is intended to accentuate the idea of the depleted river ecosystem. Furthermore, this depletion is emphasized by the presence of a single fish, and the gloss of colour: green, blue, and yellow – not realistic, but symbolic of our contemporary perceptions of the River, or the contemporary state of water quality. The colour palette was investigated in the paintings, and the colour value was found to depend on the relationship of the fish to the landscape colour. The colour ultimately used in each painting was tested to find a suitable colour combination. The Claybord paintings investigate a range of colours and
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page 82 tints that vary subtly in their relationship to each other, and again this can be seen in figure 58, where the paintings are lined up as a sequence. The third investigation involved the placement and style of motifs within the paintings. From my initial painting investigations, the reference to place and site by depicting mimetic representation of an object (such as the Indooroopilly Bridge) proved to be less effective than the evocation of, for example, a bridge, in a more schematic style. As soon as there is a realistic copy of a motif, there is a loss of engagement with the river: it introduces the idea of human imposition but not in a profound way. Possibly this is because when the bridge, pontoon and boat motifs are depicted too literally there is a loss of complexity and ambiguity in the reading of the paintings, and the focus turns to an emphasis on the literal, rather than the suggestive. It would appear from this, that the more successful paintings to this point are the earlier 2010 paintings, in which it is more difficult to discern where layers begin and end, and the location is “the river” rather than a specific place that is identifiable. This effect can be seen inRiver with Bridge (figure 67). Such a technique confirms the universal connotation of bridges as offering connections, rather than objects of ownership or commercial linkage. An interconnected perception of nature, rather than a depiction of a specific bridge in a particular location is integral to these works.
Figure 67 Jennifer Stuerzl, River with Bridge, 2010, oil on Claybord, 40.5 x 30.5 cm
Even though a realistic motif, such as a bridge at the horizon line, was not effective, I experimented further with the representation of some detailed imagery within the painting, continuing to seek a solution to conveying the human imposition on river
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page 83 ecology. I considered that if highly refined detail did not work at the horizon line with the bridge motif, I could try superimposing an element, like the fish, bottle or mangrove in the foreground as an alternative. By means of critical assessment by analysis I evaluated Fragile Nature 3, a painting from 2008 that represented the Coke bottle and plants (figure 35). The assessment was that the bottle was possibly too obvious a motif for the human imposition, while the fish and plant were more suitable because they reference ecology directly, and allow for a more complex and ambiguous interpretation within the painting. The Claybord paintings of 2010 offered the further potential of articulating the pictorial plane in the foreground. I reflected on this, and considered whether I would be able to convey the human imposition on river ecology by contrasting sharper, crisper shapes at the shoreline in the foreground with illusionistic depictions of the river and horizon in the background. In the studio I investigated this, and the foreground space was articulated with motifs such as the small, descriptive mangroves; one or two were represented like a totemic or symbolic interruption. But this interfered with the integration of the foreground, middle ground and the horizon. To solve this problem I glazed over the painted mangroves, partially concealing the plants to give the effect of their submersion in river water (River, figure 69). This offered a solution to the representation and integration of the mangrove motif within the painting, since the mangrove, though present, does not disrupt the pictorial unity. In this way, the integration of the elements and the scheme across the water from foreground to distant horizon was regulated.
Figure 68 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on Claybord, 40.5 x 30.5 cm Figure 69 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on Claybord, 40.5 x 30 cm
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page 84 The articulation of the fish motif in the foreground was also being investigated, to evaluate the impact of the descriptive style, placement and scale of the fish within the paintings. How the fish interacted with the elements of the foreshore, the horizon and the watery middle distance was assessed for each painting. The use of descriptive forms worked well as a foil to show by contrast the more illusionistic landscape and horizon. Conversely, within the paintings the horizon acts as an illusionistic foil to the descriptive fish motif and the schematic representation of mangroves seen inRiver (figures 68–70).
Figure 70 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on Claybord, 40.5 x 30 .5 cm
I intentionally avoided any one particular formula or exact repetition of the motif. The work of artist William Buelow Gould informed these paintings, through my interest in the legacy of the colonial nineteenth-century inventory of species: I am essentially questioning the practice of documenting nature to assess its usefulness, so perceiving nature from a mechanistic and scientific position as composed of separate entities, as opposed to an organic whole, interconnecting the natural world, and establishing human relationships with nature. The ambiguity in the juxtaposition of styles evokes shifts in perception to include several different spaces and viewpoints, as well as different time- frames past and present within one single painting. In the 2010 paintings, water represents a visual foil to the shoreline and the single fish, in order to highlight the fragile nature of the river ecosystem: the green algal bloom stands for the degraded water quality, and the single fish and sparse mangroves stand for the depletion of the ecosystem at the muddy littoral edge. Where they appear, the
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page 85 blue water and sky evoke the idyll of nature’s clean water and atmosphere, an illusory counterpoint to the river’s pollution. The investigation into temporal and spatial effects seen in earlier research such as Night River 1, 2008 (figure 32) is revisited in the rectangular format and illusionistic style of Night River 1, 2011 (figure 71) – as well as in the 2010 paintings – and demonstrates my ongoing investigation of the River, its circadian changes affected by human actions, and the concept of river time. It is worth underlining that this approach differs from that of the earlier painting seen in Study in Light; Indooroopilly Reach, January 9pm, 2006 (figure 23), which represents a particular location and time of night.
Figure 71 Jennifer Stuerzl, Night River, 2010, oil on Claybord, 40.5 x 30.5 cm
Exhibition and evaluation Exhibition at the White Box gallery, Queensland College of Art, Brisbane in 2010, enabled me to evaluate the interaction between paintings and exhibition space. Several practical consequences were helpful in considering the final hang of the later show of December 2012. The harmonious hanging arrangement of the exhibition emphasized both the interconnection between the individual paintings and the overall coherence of the body of work. However, the small scale of the paintings might function better in a more intimate space like the Queensland College of Art Webb Gallery or Pop Gallery, rather than in the large, minimal White Box Gallery. The final exhibition, installed in the Webb Gallery, QCA, December 2012, is documented in the Picture Appendix, page 145. Another successful feature was the inclusion of an artist statement that effectively
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page 86 communicated the underlying complexity in idea and process embodied in the 2008– 2010 research by referencing the earlier painting processes and symbolic motifs that informed the Claybord series. A subsequent exhibition would clearly profit from a similar elaboration of the complexity of the process. The artist’s statement that I produced for the River paintings could now be usefully supplemented by the paper that I wrote later in 2011 for the QCA Studio Research Journal, “Painting the Brisbane River: Exploring the Synergies between Time, Ecology, Theory and Practice” (2011, 33–40), which critically analysed the process leading up to the 2010 paintings; similarly, extracts from the present study (which supersedes the Studio Research paper), could form an illuminating catalogue introduction for such a show. Integrating these process evaluations, the overall review of the body of work indicated that it had effectively resolved elements of the research question through its continuing process of investigating format, media and style in relation to the conceptual and local issues surrounding the human impact on river ecology. The research investigation in 2010 showed that the layering of an illusionistic landscape with literally descriptive images of fish and mangroves that articulated the foreground was an effective means to communicate the human impact on river ecology. Moreover, the painting style that concentrated and layered the motifs developed several levels of ambiguity, which arguably offer effective perceptual schemes to engage the viewer. These include the paradox inherent in the river’s apparent colour and luminosity, set against the disturbing ecological changes, signified by reference to Martens’ colonial landscape style and Gould’s natural history collections, where the painted fish signify nineteenth-century rationalist perceptions of nature as curiosity and resource (see Chapter Three, below). Just as this body of work was concluding, our comprehension of the Brisbane River changed dramatically with the 2011 flood. My perception of the river underwent a psychological shift, reflecting the river’s change from a balanced but biologically degraded waterway into a threatening force with a polluted and destroyed ecology. Because of the experience of the flood, I responded through a sixth body of work to address this change.
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page 87 Inundation Series 2011–12: oil on copper In response to the 2011 January flood, I began a series of oil paintings on copper that reflect on inundation. These were approached through a different research process that extended the research into media, style and traditions of landscape painting, to address this new chapter in the continuing human impact on the riverine ecology. Forty five copper substrate paintings ranging in size from 10 cm x 12 cm to 25 cm x 12 cm, in a small rectangular format, continue to investigate the human impact on river ecology, but guided by a different experience and perception of the River from the 2008–10 paintings. The preceding focus of the 2010 paintings was on time, ecology and colonialism, and in the 2011 paintings time and ecology continue to be investigated. However, the research process was more specifically motivated by my direct experience and the psychological impact of the flood on my perception of the River and its ecology. The January 2011 flood of the Brisbane River had a devastating impact on the river ecosystem as well as the human structures at the littoral edge. Houses and suburbs were inundated, and many lives were lost in the torrential waters that swept through the upper catchments, the greater Brisbane district, and city precinct. Because many people had no memories of previous flooding of the river, they were in a state of disbelief that it would flood, to the extent that there was a general feeling of disconnection from the threat, and people watched the water rise, expecting it to subside, since it was initially forecast to do so. However, in the meantime, ants, spiders and other wildlife sought high ground, or safety in the tallest trees, to remove themselves from the path of the inundation. As a result of the flood, the river’s littoral edge changed completely, leading to a corresponding shift in my psychological perception of the river. The littoral edge became a thick layer of mud around half-a-metre to a metre deep, covering the entire riverbank, swamping reeds and vegetation. Many mangroves had been washed away, and pontoons and walkways were upturned. Some timber structures at the river’s edge were completely demolished by the sheer force of the river and the weight of the sediment it contained.
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page 88 Everyone who had experienced the inundation viewed the river differently afterwards, considering the river to be a threat rather than a benign, aesthetic, watery space for relaxation. Many visual changes indicated the ecological destruction that had occurred. These included the changes to the water quality over time, evident in colour changes from a burnt sienna to a raw sienna, and later, tones such as sap green because of algal blooms. The extreme mud deposits contained chemicals and waste that smothered the roots of mangroves, which gradually died (Duke and Mackenzie pers. comm., 26 July 2011). My response to these dramatic changes in the River, its contamination brought about by the flood, and the extensive devastation of the ecosystem, led me to intensify my concentration on the River through the transformed lens of my experience, of living and working near it for many years. Instead of juxtaposing and compounding images, as in the earlier 2008–10 paintings, these stylistic components are re-integrated into a more unified vision within the painting, to develop a new style in my practice, both extending my skills in media and technique, and seeking an authentic way to address the research question under these changed circumstances. So, while layering is investigated in the paintings, it is through glazes and subtle overlaying of paint, rather than juxtaposing imagery and styles. In the sixth body of work, a range of research techniques gain more prominence, including photography and journaling. Although present throughout all the preceding research, these processes consequently are discussed in more detail here. The accumulated research associated with the previous bodies of work in part informs the later body of paintings on copper, and its contribution to the outcome of the research is discussed and evaluated. Format The paintings commenced in 2011 persisted with the rectangular format, in light of the advantages of engaging the audience in the subject that became apparent in the 2010 paintings, most notably that the rectangular portrait format may most effectively convey a psychological and imaginative response to the subject, analogous to a “portrait” of the river.
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page 89 As part of the process of creating the paintings, I experimented with exposing the edges of the copper plates to assess the suitability of including a border of copper within the painting field, as seen in figures 72–73. However, after completing five paintings with borders, and following extensive evaluation, I decided that the border detracted from the image, because it disrupted the flow of paint, and therefore the impression of inundation within the painting. Moreover, the hard edge that the masking tape created also imposed a severe line that detracted from the organic reference to nature and interconnection, on the grounds that it recalled hard-edge modernist painting and its urban imagery. Therefore, the deployment of the copper border as a solution to format and framing considerations proved to be less satisfactory than letting the paint bleed to the edge.
Figure 72 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper 10 x 12 cm Figure 73 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper 10 x 12 cm
The dimension of the 2011 paintings was smaller than in 2010, and ranged from 10 cm x 12 cm to 12 cm x 25 cm. This size was selected because I wanted to use scale to emphasise the fragile nature of riverine ecosystems, and the domestic and local perception of the River’s flux in the paintings. This small scale both accentuates a more subtle and intimate experience of the river location, and distinguishes the work from the heroic and grand scale of larger museum-sized paintings, such as Mandy Martin’s Red Ochre Cove,1988 (figure 13).
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page 90 Media In practical terms, copper was selected as a support because of its semi-precious value and reflective qualities. However, there is an underlying ironic reference in the use of this material, for the Brisbane Valley was the site of extensive copper mining activity from the 1870s on (Kerr 1988, 31–35), which exemplifies the environmental damage and colonial disregard for nature that has impacted on the River’s ecology. In terms of the paintings, the seeming material paradox of superficial beauty allied with potential environmental threat (i.e. damage from mining) parallels a similar conflict in the images themselves. Copper’s luminosity is very different from that of Claybord substrate. Claybord reflects back light from a uniform white surface, while, in contrast, copper is variable in what it reflects; this difference is apparent both in the overall brightness, intensity and evenness of opaque paint, and in the effect of paint applied transparently. So, in the copper-paintings, reflective variability added to the complexity and ambiguity of the surface skin of copper and paint – each painting presented its own particular problem and unique solution to the depiction of the subject, depending on the colours, the glyphs and touch rendered with the paint. Because of the dynamic convergence of surface and media, the explicit materiality of transparency, opacity, colour, texture, tone, and luminosity become more important considerations in the representation, impacting likewise on scale relationships, depth perception and psychological response. The paint was applied with small and soft brushes in techniques including glazes, scumbling, and discrete brush strokes to evoke the subject. Examples from the range of solutions to depicting a particular subject are evident in two different interpretations from Inundation (figures 74–75) of the image in the photograph (figure 76.)
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Figure 74 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper 10 x12 cm Figure 75 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper 10 x12 cm Figure 76 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, photograph
The Inundation paintings in figures 74–75 depict a similar location in a similar style with broad-brush strokes. The first, figure 74, extensively retains the exposed copper surface throughout, whereas the second, figure 75, experiments with cerulean and white glaze over the copper. This second approach integrates the copper surface and paint, to evoke a more complex recognition of the subject through the more subtle application of paint seen in the soft glazes over the surface. The degree of copper surface retained, and the ambiguity of surface treatment, was determined by decisions about material correspondences and style. Parallels for the application of these technical resources to a similar end can be found in the use of painted layers of glazes by colonial artist Isaac Walter Jenner (seen in figures 14–15); a similar degree of luminosity and fine layering is evident in William Buelow Gould’s painting of a river scene on tin, which dates from ca. 1827-53 (figure 16). As part of the process of painting the River, my research included hundreds of photographs taken at the littoral edge from different locations, and from the research boat in the company of biological scientists Norm Duke and Jock Mackenzie in August 2011 (see Chapter Three). The symbiotic relationship between photography, painting, and drawing, as well as experience and imagination, informed my investigation of the subject, as it had done in the 2008–09 paintings. Some of the studio research processes reflecting this relationship are recorded in my journal, and by the painting compositions
Jennifer Stuerzl, The Brisbane River: Art, Ecology and Perception
page 92 that reference the photograph, (figures 77–78, 80). This comparison illuminates how the compositions are developed and resolved by constructing a transposition of reality from experience of the location, and the relationship of elements and motifs in the painting, to construct a harmonious composition. Aspects of Constable’s practice have also informed my research processes, aside from his shared interest in the domestic and local experience of our home locality: his way of working through series of cloud studies into fully developed compositions has also informed my own painting schema (figure 79)
Figure 77 Jennifer Stuerzl Inundation Stormy Sky, 2011, oil on copper, 10 x 12 cm Figure 78 Jennifer Stuerzl Inundation, 2011, photograph Figure 79 John Constable Vale of Dedham 1828, oil on canvas, 145 x 122 cm Figure 80 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation Journal Sketches, 2011, pencil on paper
A further example of the interdependence between photography, journaling, theory and painting can be seen in figures 81–83: the difference between the primary research subject in the photograph, the mediated drawing, and the final painting, illustrates the process of selection and the degree of imaginative use of media, and of the relationships of elements investigated. Thus, within the painting the colour of the water is amplified and exaggerated, and the sky is changed to grey; the composition has been simplified, and there is a convergence of surface and media; the imagery is concentrated upon the descriptive shoreline at the horizon. All this serves to direct the viewer from the foreground to the distance, enabling a harmony of composition and an increased emphasis on the motifs that convey the ecological destruction.
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page 93
Figure 81 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation with Debris, 2011, photograph Figure 82 Jennifer Stuerzl, Journal Drawing, 2011 Figure 83 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation with Debris, 2011, oil on copper, 10 x 12 cm
Style The selection of copper as a substrate for the oil paintings references traditional media and representation, instanced in the pastoral landscape paintings on copper by mid-seventeenth- century artist Claude Lorrain (Gellée). Claude depicts an idyllic landscape suffused with light and atmosphere, painted in the descriptive style of traditional landscape painting. While traditional art has a history of painting on copper (practitioners have included Jan Breughel the Elder, El Greco, and Rembrandt), this technique has a continuing presence in modern and contemporary painting. In Australian modern art, Arthur Boyd painted a series of topographical landscape paintings that combine a traditionalist style with the traditional media of oil paint on copper, seen in his painting Fitzroy Falls, 1976 (figure 84). In discussing his technique Janet McKenzie states (2000, 172) “the quality of paint on metal gives a jewel-like illusion”.
Figure 84 Arthur Boyd Fitzroy Falls, 1976, oil on copper, 30.1 x 20.9 cm
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page 94 Although my painting shares some of the jewel-like illusion of classical copper-painting, it is set apart from Claude’s and Boyd’s by its more contemporary style, ethical concerns, and materiality: exposed copper, exaggerated brushstrokes, heightened colour and ambiguity of surface (figures 85–86).38
Figure 85 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation with Piers, oil on copper, 2011, 10 x 12 cm Figure 86 Jennifer Stuerzl, Night Inundation, oil on copper, 2011, 10 x12 cm
Evolving in course of the research was an awareness of the need to develop recognition of the subject, in order to engage the viewer. For this reason my research turned to Michael Podro’s work on depiction (1998, viii), in summary: that the conundrum of painting is that the stroke of paint is never seen as the actual object; it is the depiction, the coalition of the suggested image and its materiality (substance) that elicits recognition (1998, 13). In many of my research paintings I found that slightly different material convergences develop a range of solutions to conjuring up this suggestion of the subject. Podro (1998, 13) discusses Leonardo da Vinci’s drawing as a prime example of such a convergence of surface and media. The fundamental convergence of surface, media and ground in my own paintings has already been considered in the context of the media of the 2010 Inundation paintings. This phenomenon is taken to a further level with compositional shifts, and variations in colour, texture and tonal relationships that elicit psychological adjustments to the subject depicted. The clear contrast between the source photography and consequent painting demonstrates the extent of modifications that are taking place to paint each transposition of nature, when not one element, including tonal scale, colour, size and
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page 95 spatial relationship within the actual subject or photograph, corresponds to the original. In my studio research the imaginative and expressive rendering of the subject is especially evident in Inundation in Green (figure 88), where the divergence between the photographic source and the painting highlights the degree of adjustment to material correspondences required, to suggest the visible world in painting (figures 88–91). Gombrich (1987, 30) draws attention to similar factors at work in his discussion of Constable’s Wivenhoe Park, Essex (1816, figure 87).
Figure 87 John Constable, Wivenhoe Park, Essex, 1816, Oil on canvas, 56.1 x 101.2 cm
Figure 88 Jennifer Stuerzl, 2011, Inundation in Green, oil on copper, 12 x 10 cm Figure 89 Jennifer Stuerzl, 2011, Inundation, oil on copper, 12 x 10 cm Figure 90 Jennifer Stuerzl, 2011, Inundation, oil on copper, 12 x 10 cm
Figure 91 Jennifer Stuerzl, series of four River Inundation photographs, 2011
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page 96 During the second half of 2011 the painting style shifted slightly towards employing a greater element of chiaroscuro within the colour palette, which is to say, further amplifying the intensity of the colour and tonal ranges. Inundation (figure 93) and the magenta, cerulean and ultramarine component in the Night River Inundation paintings (figures 94–95) illustrate this. Again, the paintings reflect observed cyclical changes with time – the seasonal winter colour of trees turning light green and gold, the purple of the jacarandas in spring, and the circadian rhythms of day and night. Human induced changes are also recorded; whether in the water turning from brown to green due to changes in water quality (figures 92–93), or in the sunset glow aided by photochemical smog, these colouristic changes are amplified in the paintings.
Figure 92 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 12 x 25 cm Figure 93 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 10 x 12 cm
Alongside the amplification of colour in the Night River Inundation 2011–12 paintings, the representation of circadian rhythms has remained a constant strand throughout the bodies of work, from the early 2008 Night River painting (figure 32) and the 2010 Night River Claybord painting (figure 71). The 2011–12 copper paintings extend the earlier research; colour and tonal range are further explored; the visual language is more complex – flood debris that evokes ecological destruction becomes more prominent. The series of seven Night River Inundation paintings (of which two are illustrated, figures 94– 95) accentuates the immediate process of capturing instances of the river’s flux, pollution, and the destruction of the littoral edge. These, and the allied research photograph process,
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page 97 join Southam’s Lynmouth Bay photographs in more urgently stressing the threat of inundation and climate change.
Figure 94 Jennifer Stuerzl, Night River Inundation, 2012, oil on copper, 10 x 12 cm Figure 95 Jennifer Stuerzl, Night River Inundation, 2012, oil on copper, 10 x 12 cm
Evaluation Confronting the need to carry forward my core research while taking account of the flood, and its impact on the perceived character of the Brisbane River, the most successful effects I was able to deploy to communicate these new factors involved the subtle suggestion of trees reflected in the river; the spontaneous effect of copper showing through the paint at the horizon line and throughout some paintings (introducing the convergence of the surface ground and the paint). In the paintings, motifs such as bridges, pontoons and flood debris are depicted through suggestion rather than detailed description, because this evokes a general view rather than a specific location. Discussions with biological scientists Duke and Mackenzie on the Brisbane River ecology since the flood revealing( the degree of water contamination from soil erosion, agriculture, industry and sewage plants as a result of the flood), and research by scientist Tim Flannery on climate change, have made a significant contribution to my views on changes to place and river ecology, views that have informed the research paintings of the Brisbane River from 2008 onwards. However, my theoretical research into eco- philosophies, time, and concepts of the interconnections within nature have equally continued to be influential for the sixth body of work.
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page 98 The copper-ground paintings provide a contemporary interpretation of the Brisbane River and the continuing human impact on its ecology. These paintings demonstrate how its representation has been guided by personal experience and memories of the river’s changes over time, supported by conceptual investigation into traditional painting by colonial artists, into the methods of Constable, and into local history and the scientific knowledge of today. The paintings themselves, and the range of media and research techniques investigated in the search for an authentic resolution, have brought an intensity of focus to bear on the research question, where my concerns with materiality, scale, philosophy, ecology and time have converged in this final body of work. To further investigate how to represent the subject, the research process was extended into an inquiry about depiction and illusionism informed by Podro and Gombrich. In my paintings this process is visible in the suggestion of motifs through paint application, and in the investigation of relationships between compositional elements to develop a harmony of composition. Studio research into depiction has combined illusionistic, more descriptive, and abstracted elements within a single painting, a device used by Constable, as observed by Michael Rosenthal (1983, 149) in Constable’s painting Dedham Vale (1828, figure 79). In my own painting the investigation into distortion and transformation is seen in the details at the shoreline, the amplified colours in some paintings (particularly green and brown), and the prominence of the cloud motif as an active element, reminiscent of Constable’s interest in cloud formations. My evolving investigation into the riverscape schema has led to a consideration of the materiality of painting, progressing through modes of representation and depiction, material correspondences such as the translucency or opacity of medium, and the gradations of texture, colour and chiaroscuro, to develop a structural harmony. In the 2011–12 paintings, the intention to suggest the visible world in this way, rather than present precise copies of it, is mindful of the broader aspects of time discussed by Rawson (2005, 23), where form, analogy and the time-process of change all contribute to the meaning of the final image.
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page 99 RESEARCH PROCESSES: OVERVIEW The processes that evolved over the course of the research followed in each case a similar template of proposing, testing and evaluating format, media and style. Particular issues are constantly referenced in different ways throughout the range of research processes: time, science and ecology, eco-philosophies, representation, colonialism and traditionalism. These underlying concerns, although present as a factor in every body of work, are manifested in differing proportions or given different degrees of emphasis, depending upon the demands of each research process. At each stage, I have tested the rationale of my work against aspects of contemporary practice, arriving at a compact “canon” of artists whose approach I have identified as influential for the evolving resolution of this project. Within this research framework, my experience of the Brisbane River through time has helped shape the individual research processes. From the 2006 paintings, demonstrating some of my earlier experiments into documenting the River from a rational and ordered perception of nature, to the final body of work in 2011–12, where the shift in my perception of the River has evolved from experience of location, research into local science and history, and the studio and theoretical investigations undertaken – investigating an organic perception of nature and time, and river time – the research processes have developed correspondingly. The trace of this progression is marked in the titling of the paintings, which is consistent with the development in iconography. So where the earlier research style is topographical, titles appear such as Indooroopilly Reach 3pm. By the time of the 2011 paintings, concentrating and selecting imagery to develop a constructed vision of apparent reality through an illusionistic and descriptive style, the titling has become more generic, as in the Inundation series. The current research has extended further into the elements and illusionistic effects first seen in the earlier paintings, but addressing the conceptual and philosophic, rather than purely aesthetic, aspects of the river ecology seen in the 2006 paintings. The research processes investigated, clearly stated and constantly guided by experience of
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page 100 the River and the possibilities for its representation, are diverse and indicate the rigour of my conceptual research and my response to location. In responding to the changing demands of evaluation, theoretical and material reasearch, and the dramatic consequences of the major Brisbane River flood, the research processes have proved to be robust. They demonstrate the evolution in the studio research towards developing a mode of representation that resolves the research, but allows a subjective response based not only on theory and studio research, but also on the domestic experiences of living and working at the River’s edge. Within the research processes, evaluation, exhibition of the work at different stages and critical review have led to consideration of the significance of exhibition context and space, the scale of paintings, and the psychological dimension of our perception of imagery, particularly how to engage the audience in the concerns of my work, as well as in the work itself. The progressive accumulation and extension of knowledge of format, media and style is evident through the course of the research processes – they show that each body of work extends the previous one by rejecting or embracing certain aspects of the work in the quest to find an authentic resolution. The six bodies of work have all explored ways to address how the human impact on river ecology can be represented, and each presents progress towards a valid resolution. Through the processes of studio and theoretical research, and evaluation, more satisfying bodies of work have evolved to match my requirement in representing the River: that rather than an outright aesthetic approach, painting can present a philosophical and psychological resolution to the representation of the human impact on river ecology, by responding to the experience of the River’s flux. While this resolution presents one answer to the specific research inquiry, the research processes and theoretical investigation undertaken, to explore the capacity of materiality and style to influence perceptions of the human impact on river ecosystems, offer rich possibilities for future research.
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page 101 CHAPTER THREE A SYNERGISTIC MODEL
My research into how painting can communicate and question the course and impact of human activity over time on the ecology and perception of the Brisbane River has developed a synergistic model as a proposed resolution to the question. Although six bodies of work have evolved during the research, only two bodies of work form the synergistic resolution. These are the 2010 River and Inundation oil paintings on Claybord, and the 2011–12 Inundation oil paintings on copper. The 2010 oil paintings on Claybord form part of the resolution because they are the culmination of the research up to 2010 and they represent the topic prior to the 2011 flood. These paintings, created in response to experience and memories of the river, as well as to knowledge accumulated from studio and theoretical research, present an informed, subjective solution to representing the human impact on river ecology. Key elements in the way these paintings test perceptions of nature have been: the river’s cycles and history; the relationship between art and ecology; and also the relationship between colonial art and my studio practice in developing a visual language. The paintings are informed by theories on time, eco- philosophy, local history, and scientific knowledge of the river. In contrast, theInundation 2011–12 oil on copper paintings respond to the experience of the changes to the Brisbane River following the 2011 flood, supported by extended research, including participation in an ecological survey of the River. The argument for the resolution of oil paintings on copper draws on reference to time and place, ecology and art, traditionalism, illusionism and depiction. In representing the human impact on river ecology over time, this body of work investigates the psychological shift that has occurred in the cultural and individual perception of the river as a consequence of the flood. The two bodies of work offer stylistically and conceptually different templates for an artistic response to experience of location, and theoretical and philosophic research. Stylistically, the Claybord paintings address the question by layering descriptive motifs
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page 102 over an illusionistic landscape, and therefore include different temporal and spatial frames of reference within one painting. The oil on copper paintings address the question by representing a more unified (although more complex) construct of reality that references romanticism and traditionalism – rather than making either a literal copy of the river, or a layered juxtaposition of different painting styles and motifs, as seen in the 2010 paintings.
River and Inundation Series 2010: oil on Claybord paintings From my earlier research of 2008–10, it became apparent that in order to understand and represent the Brisbane River, there are a range of significant relationships between nature and culture to take into account: these relationships may determine the way humans have impacted on river ecology over time. Consequently, the 2010 paintings were not investigating one particular moment in time, but the complex history of the river, informed by ecological research and reference to perceptions of nature seen in paintings by colonial artists, contemporary artists and philosophies of various kinds. These issues guided my practice in 2010. Investigation of time was a central element in the paintings, evoked by the compounding and layering of an illusionistic waterscape and shoreline with a descriptive fish, that together reference the nineteenth century and the contemporary river in a single painting. The development of a fictive reality outside time, avoiding a literal transposition of the subject, is further intensified by amplifying colour; more strongly delineating the fish; and by harmonizing relationships such as scale, colour, and placement of the fish in relation to the horizon and shoreline. The composition is unified though a balancing of material correspondences, as seen in figures 96–97: in paintings in this series the varying horizon lines suggest degrees of submersion; corresponding variations in the scale and placement of the fish are considered in relation to the overall image. The descriptive fish is located as a foil to the illusionistic landscape, disrupting the flow of the viewer’s gaze as it passes from the foreground to the horizon, with the purpose, through the disjunction of implied space and expected context, of causing the viewer to question this incongruity,
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page 103 so drawing attention to the ecological imbalance at its heart. This fact itself can be seen as deploying a manipulation of the reading/performance time phenomenon. Moreover, the void at the centre of the painting serves both to amplify the sense of depletion, and to offer a reflective space for contemplation in the painting.
Figure 96 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on Claybord, 30.5 x 45.5 cm Figure 97 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on board, 90 x 110 cm
The wider Claybord body of work also included a small series of inundation paintings that engage with river time and the history of flooding (figures 98–99). Here the treatment of the vista and high horizon line are intended to develop a psychological impression of being submerged by water, and of the water flooding beyond the picture plane into the viewer’s space. The idea of inundation conveys multiple associations with river history, river time and ecology. As well as the daily tidal inundations and the local history of the Brisbane River’s flooding, present in immediate experience and memory, these associations may embrace fear of future inundation due to climate change, and the archetypal flood mythology common to many cultures. My subsequent oil on copper paintings share reference to these complex notions of time, culture and ecology within their own mode of expression. However, in the Claybord inundation paintings (figures 98– 99) the absence of the fish is intended to evoke the potential complete biological depletion of the river; it may be that this point is more strongly emphasized in the knowledge of the more extended series in which fish are included.
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page 104
Figure 98 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation 1, 2010, oil on Claybord, 30.5 x 45.5 cm Figure 99 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation 2, 2010, oil on Claybord, 30.5 x 45.5 cm
We have seen how, in questioning the human impact on river ecology, my research has highlighted a perception of wonder at nature’s diversity, and a Romantic, organic worldview of scenic nature in colonial and traditional painting, that persisted in parallel with the tendency in art and culture in the nineteenth century to categorize and collect nature as a curiosity, and for commercial assessment. During the nineteenth century, the documentation of botanical and zoological specimens was developed in line with taxonomic classifications of species, such as that devised by Carl Linnaeus, as a way of rationalizing the natural world and gauging the suitability of sites, such as the Brisbane River, for settlement. My research explores perceptions of nature and the human impact on river ecology with reference to William Buelow Gould’s natural history specimens and colonial paintings of scenic views in order to highlight the ecological legacy of these perceptions and the practice of ordering and documenting nature. Gould’s The Sketchbook of Fishes (1832; see Darby 1980, 100–101), which includes thirty-five fish varieties, forms an essential reference point for my 2010 River paintings. Through its detailed analysis and anatomical description of fish, Gould’s work celebrates abundance, colonization, and the documentation of fish species as a natural history inventory of curiosities (figure 100). His specimens are abstracted from their native environment, floating against a pale, neutral ground. While this immediately sets Gould’s images apart from my own work, they establish the visual pattern against which the Claybord paintings play. This removal of the fish from its natural habitat may reflect
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page 105 a failure to engage with the entirety of the environment at an unconscious level; certainly it indicates the rationalist way of unconnected thinking that sees a scientific specimen as isolated from any wider system other than that of taxonomy.39
Figure 100 William Buelow Gould, Yellow Eye Mullet from The Sketchbook of Fishes, 1832, watercolour Figure 101 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on Claybord, 30.5 x 45.5 cm
The cross-reference with Gould’s work is intentional, but the technical means are different: my work using oil paint produces painterly effects different from the delicate watercolour used by Gould. Moreover, two key elements permit the development of sophisticated meaning out of the conventional pattern. Firstly, the selection of fish species represented in the Claybord river paintings include: toados and catfish, which are characteristic of a river suffering reduced biodiversity and water quality; and goldfish, alluding to stories of escaped exotic species, by-product of the colonial imposition on the river and contemporary encroachment. Secondly, my placement of these species against the illusionistic vista of the Brisbane River re-contextualizes Gould’s “fish out of water” illustrations to develop a recognition of the paradox of the contemporary river: apparently natural, but significantly altered by Western perceptions of nature, and the effect of such perceptions on river ecology since colonial settlement. The illusionistic riverscape setting, associated with this body of work, evolved in response to Romantic and picturesque landscape tendencies observed in the painting of nineteenth-century colonial artists Conrad Martens, Eugène von Guérard, Isaac Walter
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page 106 Jenner and William Buelow Gould (in his scenic mode); and in the methodological research, ambiguity of location proved a more effective means to communicate my concerns than a topographical-mimetic description of place. We have seen how the work of these colonial artists affirms an idyllic view of human occupation of nature and the success and security of colonial settlement, through illusionistic rendering of a natural beauty rooted in place – whereas my River paintings question such a simplistic worldview, by engaging with the paradox of the Brisbane River’s apparent richness (in terms of its colour and luminosity) and its simultaneous depletion (in terms of degraded ecological diversity and reduced water quality). The complexity of the subject has demanded a resolution that layers and compounds different modes of representation to evoke a new space that itself references different time regions: past natural diversity and the present depletion of species; colonial development; modern scientific evaluation of reduced water quality and biodiversity; philosophical approaches to ecology; and responses to landscape in art of different periods. It can also be argued that the processes of direct engagement with the river as part of my research journey are embedded as a lived time element within the culminating body of work. In any case, the earlier bodies of work River Traces and River with Quadrat photographs (2009–10), and the layering and compounding of imagery in Fragile Nature, River Story and Deep River (2008–09), prepared the way towards developing a subjective and imaginative interpretation of issues about river ecology over time. In parallel, the 2010 paintings extend the stylistic aspect of research into format, scale and presentation context – fundamental in engaging the viewer to participate more directly in a subjective representation of the human impact on river ecology over time, and a key element in communicating perceptions of the Brisbane River and its ecology. The fact is easily overlooked that different spatial and sequential arrangements of paintings within the series also carry time-implications at the reading-performance time level (as defined by Rawson 2005, 44–45), at the point of the viewer’s encounter with the artwork. The resolution to the research question proposed in the River and Inundation oil
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page 107 on Claybord paintings of 2010 refutes the patriarchal reason/nature model of perception that was characteristic of those sections of nineteenth-century society that founded the colony of Brisbane, and ultimately had such a profound impact on the Brisbane River ecology. The body of work questions the measuring of nature inherent in reason/nature dualistic perceptions by proposing an organic and holistic perception of nature, where different narratives of destruction and wholeness may coexist within a non-linear time frame, to confront a reductionist worldview through a subjective interpretation of river ecology.
Inundation Series 2011–12: oil on copper paintings
Although the 2010 research presented one satisfactory resolution to the research question, changes to the Brisbane River resulting from the catastrophic inundation in early 2011 directed my work towards seeking a response to the ecological and psychological impact of the inundation. I perceived the Brisbane River differently after the destruction caused by the flood: the River changed its identity from a contained and managed estuary to a dynamic force that could not be contained. Both the habitat of mud and mangroves, with their associated species of flora and fauna, and the human structures at the littoral edge, such as pontoons and walkways, proved to be ephemeral. My response to this event would ultimately lead to a richer, but perhaps more subtle, second resolution, where illusion, traditionalism, representation and depiction coincide to address a dramatic new experience of place and a corresponding psychological shift in the human perception of the Brisbane River, and where colour and painterly effects take on a more significant role. There is, however, a continuity running from the Claybord paintings into the oil paintings on copper, in their common concern with communication of the ecological degradation since colonial times, with the complex workings of time, and with the potential in the interconnections between human and non-human realms acting in partnership, towards a synergistic whole.
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page 108 Three aspects of the evolution of the oil on copper paintings of 2011–12 contribute to the developed, second-level resolution proposing a synergistic model in response to the research question: a renewed engagement with concepts of time and place in representing the Brisbane River; further research into the relationship between art and ecology; and investigation into art, illusion and depiction in relation to my practice – in which my exploration of the work of traditional artist John Constable was influential. This evolved progress towards resolving the research question supplements, rather than supplants, the research of 2010, by validating the underlying premise through a different approach. The oil on copper paintings offer a subjective response more specifically related to representing the lived experience of micro and macro aspects of place, ecology and the human impact on the River that led to the flooding. So, besides the altered perception of the Brisbane River from a secure estuary into an unpredictable and potentially threatening natural force, the work reflects physical transformation: water changing from flood-brown to the green of algal bloom, and modification of the littoral edge, as mangroves were swept away and remaining trees gradually died, as the Inundation paintings show (for example, figures 109–110). The post-flood paintings create a quite different impact physically and aesthetically for the viewer, in terms of scale and technique, and extend the range of visual language deployed, so inviting a more sophisticated interpretation. The choice of copper as a substrate imposes some practical restrictions and challenges, but opens up new possibilities of meaning, reference and painterly technique. Copper is a material with its own inherent value and place in human culture, from the politics and ecological impact of mineral extraction, to industry and alchemy; it has a long history as a support in traditional painting, prized for the luminosity it can impart. There is already here an ambivalence in the trade-off between beauty and commercial exploitation, made concrete in the colonial inheritance of wealth and environmental damage deriving from copper mining in the Brisbane catchment. The properties of the copper substrate contribute actively to the exploration of materiality in the 2011–12 paintings, allowing seductive attraction to play
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page 109 a part in the engagement of viewer with artwork, and through the embedded beauty- colonialism-ecological degradation paradox, adding an element of irony to the meaning of the work. Whether experienced by the viewer at an aesthetic, analytical or intuitive level, the 2011–12 oil on copper paintings extend the research into time imagery beyond those features they already share with the Claybord paintings of 2010, responding to the transformed physical and psychological circumstances of the Brisbane River landscape post-flood, and to the implications of my further research into media, theory and technique. In the context of the research question and the theoretical basis of my practice, an awareness of how the components of time imagery may support and enhance the effective visual communication of ideas and reveal perceptions is essential. Because the 2011–12 oil on copper paintings take engagement with time to the furthest extent appearing in my work, they may offer the best exemplar of this in action. Each individual piece in the body of work integrates a range of different components relating to time that affect how we understand its meaning; these components may vary in proportion and the way they are applied, according to the demands of the particular image, although they break down into four loose categories. Firstly, basic time elements may include: personal experience and memories, myths (in this case the archetype of flooding), and the physical and intellectual journey that caused the work to exist as a concrete object; these elements may not be immediately obvious, but they are fundamental. The second category comprises specific time references – which may be overtly stated or implied – either to identifiable concepts such as transformation or cycles, to historical narratives or cultural traditions (settlement, colonialism), to specific events (for example, the 2011 inundation), or to identifiable times of day and recognizable stages in a process (progressive discoloration of flood water). The third set of components affects ways the artwork may be perceived by the viewer and depends to an extent upon intention and style; in the 2011–12 paintings, the underlying intention has been to explore and resolve the issues raised in the research
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page 110 question: time-related components of this include responding to accumulated data to demonstrate ecological damage over time and potential future threats to the environment. Style can operate at different time levels in the image, for instance if it evokes reference to the painting style of a different period (traditionalism), or as contained in the basic building-blocks of technique, where the individual touch or brush stroke can affect the way the image is read, perhaps giving a sense of movement, agitation or calm; Rawson (2005, 42–3) sees these “glyphs” as traces of activity carried out through time and indicators of an artist’s personal style: within the oil on copper paintings the interplay of brushwork and surface is a significant feature. The relationship between the horizon time and time as region experienced by the viewer forms the fourth component; the 2011–12 paintings present a seemingly more concrete conception of horizon time than the 2010 work, alluding most immediately to the event horizons in the lead up to and aftermath of the 2011 inundation – but through their constructed fictive reality they also offer a more complex time as region. All of these elements come together in the paintings via the reading time process. How the viewer receives the integrated, overall meaning must to an extent depend on their capacity to engage with the work – their attention span, sophistication and the personal store of memories and associations they carry with them. I recognize in my painting that it is the task of the artwork to create a space where this encounter can take place. Perhaps the viewer may experience an emotional response, a sense of unease, of threat, or a feeling of empathy. An ambiguity, contradiction or metaphorical resonance can lead to a sense of confusion or cause the viewer to question their response. Such intuitive reactions are significant for my intention of engaging the viewer in concern over the historical and future state of the Brisbane River ecology, and by extension, the wider environment. Intuition is the means by which we access time as region (Rawson 2005, 127–130), where authenticity and historical depth can be communicated most effectively, at a level beyond any overt statement of an ecological agenda, limited by its own terms. In their investigation of the changes over time to the Brisbane River ecology, the 2011–2012
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page 111 paintings intend to create an imaginative interpretation of the subject that is informed by memories and experience of specific place, and by the anticipation of the possibility of further change. The micro aspects of place reflect the current global concern for ecosystems under pressure from loss of habitat, reduced biodiversity and water quality, extreme weather events, and the threat of future flooding due to rising sea levels. The ecological impact of the 2011 flood prompted me to research the Brisbane River ecology further, and to increase my understanding of the River’s ecology I took part in the Mangrove Watch Hub project resurveying the River in August 2011. Norm Duke (Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, Director of Mangrove Watch Hub) and environmentalist Jock Mackenzie (Mangrove Watch Hub Coordinator) had been researching changes to the Brisbane River mangroves since the January 2011 flood to determine how to sustain the River ecosystem. They see the mangroves as biological indicators of the health of the river, showing the effects of the flood on the local environment (Duke and Mackenzie, pers. comm., 26 July 2011). Many mangroves are dying, and Duke and Mackenzie attribute this to habitat changes involving either excessive sediment deposits around the mangrove roots or erosion of sediment from the roots. In addition, the floodwater and sediments in the river contained nutrients, herbicides and hormones from the catchments, and metals, such as copper, zinc and lead, that washed into the river from pipes and roofs, contributing to ecological damage. This personal engagement with scientific research into the extent of human impact on the Brisbane River influenced my studio research in developing the visual language of my paintings. From this research (and informed by previous discussions with Di Tarte in 2008), several visual elements emerge within my 2011 practice that refer to the effects of the flood and human impact. These include: sediment and mud deposits; inundation and polluted water, brown from sediment or green from algal blooms; reduced biodiversity, seen in fallen and dying mangroves; debris in trees; and human structures, such as walkways and piers, upturned and damaged. Therefore experience of the flood, and changes to the Brisbane River reflecting the ecological disaster, fed directly into the
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page 112 2011–12 paintings. Enquiry into the human impact on river ecology since the flood led my painting towards a more developed resolution of the research, with the intention of engaging the audience in this issue. My studio practice in the 2011–12 Inundation oil on copper paintings addressed depiction, representation and traditionalism, to extend the visual language available to me, while still continuing to engage with river time, science and ecological perspectives, and colonialism. Theoretical research into Podro’s analysis of depiction led me to explore how painterly effects and the convergence of surface and medium can elicit recognition of the subject; so, in Inundation, 2011 (figure 102), layering of ultramarine glazes and painting with small brush strokes develop an ambiguity and convergence between the copper substrate and oil paint medium. Painterly effects include the illusionistic depiction of water, earth and sky in such a way that edges are diffuse, landforms merge and shapes evoke elements through imaginative interpretation (figure 103). Ambiguity between surface and paint can suggest a continuity of forms and surface where content and execution are intimately linked. In Inundation, 2011 (figure 103) unity of the elements is created through a gradation of hue, and textural brushstrokes progressing from larger in the foreground to smaller at the horizon line, to suggest brown, polluted water, broken pontoon piles, water patterns and the shoreline, diminishing with distance.
Figure 102 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 12 x 10cm Figure 103 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 12 x 10cm
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page 113 The 2011–12 paintings investigated illusionistic styles capable of depicting a recognizable construct of the physical world, necessary to convey to the viewer the river image and its underlying ecological concerns. This aligns with Podro (1998, 5), in his belief that
At the core of depiction is the recognition of its subject . . . . Depiction has two main conditions: first our capacity to recognise through difference and second, the intention to use the object that is materially present – the painting or drawing – to imagine what we recognise in it.
Therefore there is a tension between engaging imaginative interpretation on the part of the viewer, and producing a literal copy of reality, that imitates nature without imaginative and creative rigour. Podro (1998, 7) sees “. . . an infinite range of ways in whichthe painter’s marks elicit recognition and in so doing prompt a sense of illusion. . . ”, but beyond the contribution of materiality, the oil on copper paintings investigate how compositional elements can also elicit recognition of the subject, convey meaning and construct a self- contained, fictive reality – rather than a purely mimetic copy of a scene – to engage with ecological issues and the human impact on river ecology over time. The ability of the mind to respond to relationships within a composition is proposed by Gombrich (1987, 44–45) as a key to the psychological problem of establishing a “convincing image” of reality. In effect, to both engage the viewer and represent the subject, a connection between the psychology of perception of the artist and of the viewer is necessary. Investigation into how the relationships between elements develop a compositional harmony to suggest the subject, led to the solution of a transposition or construct of nature presented through the painted picture. In all of the 2011–12 paintings the composition of motifs, such as clouds, water and devastation at the shoreline, is in each case an amalgamation of research experience and different river views, of stages in the process of ecological damage, and of evocations of the physical presence of the River in flood, concentrated within a single image. Each image is a construct designed through a balance of relationships and painterly effects to open a dialogue with the viewer, by awakening
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page 114 corresponding reactions – memories, associations of feeling or sensory experience, questions or paradoxes – that elicit pause for thought. Amplified colour, luminosity and ambiguous surface effect, illusionism and reference to traditional practice, all combine in the small, icon-like images of the Brisbane River. The apparent beauty of the river, shimmering with soft light under peaceful skies reminiscent of the colonial picturesque, sets up an ironic conflict with the brown sediment of a mud-laden reach, the green algal bloom of polluted water, the broken pontoon piles and decaying mangroves at the shoreline, that represent the human contribution to the environmental damage that has resulted from mining, development and the clearing of vegetation (Inundation, figures 104–106).
Figure 104 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 12 x 10cm Figure 105 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 12 x 10cm Figure 106 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 12 x 10cm
The 2011–12 paintings establish a second and more sophisticated viable template for representing the human impact on Brisbane River ecology: they demonstrate a route informed by theories of depiction and representation, and by traditions of landscape painting, where the complex subject is communicated suggestively through perceptual adjustments. Whereas in the 2010 Claybord paintings descriptive and illusionistic modes are juxtaposed within one painting in such a way that pictorial unity is disrupted, the 2011–12 oil on copper paintings depict an illusionistic, unified construct of the River, where painterly effects and the harmonious relationship of elements within the picture disconcertingly belie the stark environmental message. The different approaches to this resolution are apparent in River and Inundation (figures 107 and 108): despite
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page 115 their differences (including the significant difference in scale: see figures 107–108 for illustration of relative scale), they present alternative validations of the research model.
Figure 107 Jennifer Stuerzl, River, 2010, oil on board, 110 x 90 cm Figure 108 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 12 x 10 cm (duplicate: juxtaposition to illustrate relative scale; for full size original, see figure 106)
As a final stage in my investigation into how representation could be expanded in scope through imaginative interpretation in the oil on copper series, I approached the function of traditionalism in my painting in relation to the work of nineteenth-century artist John Constable. Romantic painter Constable’s expressive style and his process of researching art, science and painting traditions to find a mode of representation have informed my evolving research. Moreover, his attachment to the environs of his home in Suffolk, and his repeated paintings of the same locations over thirty years in different seasons, has inspired the process of my work and its reference to nature and cyclical time. Constable’s painting resonates with my practice in several ways: in his experience of location through time, and in his scientific enquiry, research of landscape traditions and experiments into the depiction of landscape, in which he achieves compositional unity by
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page 116 structuring the relationship between elements to represent an informed and imaginative transposition of the physical world. Constable often returns repeatedly to his subject, showing the changes over time, for example in the paintings Dedham Vale 1802 and Landscape (The Vale of Dedham) 1828 (figure 79).
Figure 109 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 12 x 10 cm Figure 110 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 12 x 10 cm
Some of the devices employed by Constable in his picturesque construction of the image to assist the viewer in engaging with the picture have informed my work. In a single picture, the rendering of specific detail may be contrasted with more abstracted depiction, where images are evoked through more stylized brush strokes (Rosenthal 1983, 189), which may enhance a sense of reality through the variety of detail and broader texture. I have used analogous techniques in the 2011–12 paintings: in Inundation (figure 109) the trees at the horizon and the foreground debris are merely suggested, and more abstracted in form than the more clearly defined foreground tree, whilst in Inundation (figure 110) the foreground is vaguely suggested and contains abstracted shapes, whereas the more distant horizon featuring the bridge, river bend and flood debris is more finely articulated. In each painting the varied level of detail, and range of colours, textures and motifs depicted, are chosen to communicate an emotive response to inundation Constable emphasized the traditional ground plane to develop perception of space, structuring the foreground to horizon plane by a series of horizontal and diagonal, tonal,
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page 117 textural and colour gradations, demonstrating the “. . . central importance [of the ground plane] . . . in the subjective experience of perception . . . .” (Lambert 2005, 17). Similar experiments with the structure of the ground plane and relationships between elements of colour, tone, texture and style can be seen in my paintings Inundation, 2011 (figures 111–112).
Figure 111 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 12 x 10 cm Figure 112 Jennifer Stuerzl, Inundation, 2011, oil on copper, 12 x 10 cm
Again, the amplification of colour and chiaroscuro within my paintings, as well asa regard for the part atmospheric and seasonal conditions can play in the expression of mood (even though viewed in the light of scientific research), find a resonance in the work of Constable (figures 113–114).
Figure 113 John Constable, Study for View of the Stour near Dedham, 1822, oil on canvas,129.5 x 185.4 cm Figure 114 John Constable, View of the Stour near Dedham, 1822, oil on canvas, 129.5 x 188 cm
Both Constable’s and my own work connect with the social and cultural contexts of our time. However, while our work occupies a similar domesticated locale, with the trappings of civilization in evidence, my painting does not set a pastoral idyll. Rather
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page 118 it uses these resources to establish a kind of anti-idyll. His river is a source of transport (locks) and motive power (mills), channeled through cultivated fields and at the service of the agrarian revolution that Constable celebrates; the Brisbane River in my painting is deceptive, hiding its potent destructive force, and when seen in its damaged state is a testament to the ecological harm caused by unrestrained human activity and the absence of a holistic vision of the interconnectedness of all life.
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page 119 CONCLUSION
Fundamental to the research question, of how painting can communicate and question the course and impact of human activity over time on the ecology and perception of the Brisbane River, is the extent to which the practice of a painter can inform the world about ecological issues. This depends on two basic factors: the receptiveness and range of audiences the work reaches; and the effectiveness with which the work communicates its message – without merely offering an explicit manifesto for a cause. This is a subjective question, in the sense that it is difficult, if not impossible, to measure the answer objectively, other than in an anecdotal or small scale and individual way. The audience that art can reach may relate to the networks the artist has developed and the socioeconomic and political climate that exists when the work is produced. For example, my paintings have been exhibited within Griffith University to a general audience, peer reviewed by an academic audience, and exhibited in local commercial galleries with a different audience and review process. Each audience has responded quite differently to the works. The fact that I have written about the research will enable a broader audience to critique the paintings and more fully understand the human impact on river ecology. Press coverage of such a project has the potential to inform and affect public opinion at a time when the subject is topical. A dedicated internet site, exchange of hyperlinks with joint-interest arts and environment bodies, and availability of the project on academic websites via internet search engines, all offer possibilities for further dissemination of the work, and so the potential to reach and influence a wider audience. We have seen how the artist can move outside the gallery and traditional studio space to be more directly involved with scientists and the community in a participatory role, citing the Desert Channels project (see Chapter One), where artists, scientists and historians collaborated in a publication to advocate the conservation of ecosystems and communities they sustain, attracting financial support and assistance from government bodies, including the Australian Research Council and the National Museum of Australia.
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page 120 Certainly in such a wide-reaching collaborative project, art can assist in the preservation of ecosystems by raising public awareness of ecological stress and the interconnections between nature and human use. It could also be claimed that such involvement may enhance the perception of art as a valid channel for communicating and raising the profile of environmental issues. My own collaborative engagement with local scientists Duke and Mackenzie, as part of my research for the 2011–12 paintings, informed my understanding of the human impact on the Brisbane River ecology, through reduced water quality, species loss and environmental damage. However, the effectiveness of painting to communicate, inform, and perhaps educate, to change attitudes and influence action, must ultimately reside in the work. If persuasiveness becomes part of the role of painting, then to set it apart from advertising or propaganda, there need also to be present integrity and authenticity, values which have been at the core of my research. The research has investigated ways that, both within and beyond social-historical context, painting can reflect, commentate upon, challenge and sometimes distort the condition and status of landscape and the environment. This has been investigated through analysis of the nature and causes of the ecological problem, of the ways it has been represented and perceived, of the scientific evidence base, and of the artistic/theoretical/philosophical resources and approaches available to address the issue in visual terms. I identified a capacity to elicit recognition of the subject of the human impact on ecosystems over time through imaginative interpretation and the construction of a fictive reality, rather than through presenting a literal copy of reality. My research suggests imaginative interpretation may evoke a subjective response that includes feelings, experience, myths, and memories of human connections with nature, which would enable empathy and concern for the environment; the research also suggests that embedded notions of paradox, cultural reference and time can intensify the level of engagement of the viewer with the work. Gablik (1992, 25) promoted an optimistic belief in communicating through art to raise awareness of poor ecological practices, and my research processes have been directed by an optimistic conviction that individual
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page 121 actions can influence perceptions, and can help foster a holistic worldview that recognizes the importance of, and so aims to preserve, nature’s ecosystems. Rigorous research of the subject in a range of styles has supported an attempt to find an authentic way to communicate these ideas, and to test how an artist can address the issues of poor ecological practices through a range of approaches. Returning to the individual terms contained in the research question – how painting can communicate and question the course and impact of human activity over time on the ecology and perception of the Brisbane River – my research has investigated how perception can be a key component in artistic communication, both in the visual transmission of content via the medium of communication, and in the perception of nature that prevails in the culture or worldview of a population; this is the interface where the engagement with the viewer takes place, where colonial, reductionist, politically expedient perceptions encounter a holistic, ecologically informed worldview, expressed in painting. The term course suggests direction through time, and time is essential both in expressing and understanding the trajectory of ecological damage, the character of the River, and how the River interacts with human culture and is impacted by human activity. In order to question the course, its trajectory should be recognized as implying a potential future, arising from the present and historical past. However, future perception and future human activity (inevitably linked) are not predetermined by the past, although there is a negative momentum which a united, collaborative, holistic approach can seek to influence. Knowledge of this exists to a degree in the community, but historically, politically and economically, the dominance of the reductionist worldview, at the expense of the organic or holistic, has been an ongoing obstacle to the preservation of nature since colonial times (Bonyhady 2000, 10–11). I see this impasse continuing today with the Brisbane River, witnessed by the poor state of the water quality, damaging development in the catchments, and industrial expansion at the port of Brisbane. Sadly, this inertia can only ever be addressed incrementally, and there is no sure method of influencing attitudes to bring about change. The comment of a PhD student (an environmental scientist with a
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page 122 career in business) confronted by my work illustrates the entrenched values of scientific rationalism that still exist today: “Oh, I’ve never thought about it like that before – this is so alien. . . you could sell your paintings through community conservation groups – why are you talking to me?” She had no concept of collaborative thought or activity, and could only see art as for commercial gain. But yet the comment also demonstrates the ability of art to bring a person up short, to attract attention, and to pose a question (“why me?”) which may, in time, demand an answer. In October 2012, The Museum of Brisbane purchased eight pictures from the 2011–2012 Inundation series of paintings on copper, to be included in a three-year exhibition “The River: A History of Brisbane” (opening in April 2013), alongside the work of other contemporary and historical artists, and in association with social and historical material.40 The exhibition, which is also to be published in print and as an e-book, will constitute a significant outcome for my research in two ways. Firstly, it will offer an opportunity to engage a wider audience with my work – and so enable me to review the resolution of my research in a new context; secondly, it may present potential routes towards future development of my ongoing investigation of the Brisbane River through the interconnections between art, ecology and perception. My practice has embraced the holistic worldview and the temporal theories of Rawson (2005, 127–130) which envisage an intuitive relation with “the whole”, rather than with separate entities, in the perception of culture, nature and time. The research into the representation of the Brisbane River in painting engages with the complexities of the subject and the constant changes over time in the natural world, and in human perceptions of, and connections with nature. The synergistic model I have proposed as a resolution is a response to the River’s continual state of change and the changing perceptions of nature that have impacted on the river ecology since colonial settlement. The research presents not one solution but two, and could offer more with time and further investigation. The resolution is expressed through a personal visual language that makes the paintings more profound by representing and concentrating aspects of reality. This visual language has
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page 123 developed in response to my conceptual, practical and philosophical research, and my deep experience of the river ecology, further informed by local scientists and historians. By engaging with the Brisbane River near the location of my home, my research has evolved an ongoing investigation to find an authentic way to articulate the growing threat of ecological destruction through the language of painting, that functions at a personal level, but resonates in a connected view of all ecosystems, and insists on the responsibility for and dependence on the environment, that this view implies.
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NOTES
1. Botanist Alan Cunningham’s Journals (1824) of the expedition with John Oxley, to survey the course of the Brisbane River and identify plants and soil types, indicate the seasonal variation of the River’s flow and water quality. Cunningham identifies plant species and describes the diversity of trees and flowering plants, and records the abundance of wildlife including ducks, pelicans, and swans. For Cunningham’s detailed descriptions of plant species, water quality and geography, see extracts from his Journal in John Steele (1972, 150–174).
2. For further information on the Brisbane floods of 1893, see Gregory (2012).
3. As my practice developed, it became apparent that Rawson’s approach in Art and Time (2005) was of direct relevance to the process of my empirically based research. Rawson (2005, 23–25) suggests that actual human experience includes a complex weaving-together of tactile and sensual experiences, combined with memories that allow changing arrangements of time in space. Rawson’s integrated framework for analysing and exploring the aesthetics and philosophies of time in art across different cultures was explicitly created to offer insights to both makers and audiences of art. The book addresses “the interplay of art and time at different levels, from technical execution and formal invention to the spiritual and intuitive” (Rawson 2005, 11). It differs from other studies surveying cultural-theoretical, philosophical and historical aspects of the subject, such as Art and Time, edited by Jan Lloyd Jones, Paul Campbell and Peter Wylie (2007), which claims to cover material “from Fra Angelico to Frank Lloyd Wright, from Hamlet to The Lord of the Rings, from Renaissance dance to rave music”.
4. Elizabeth Grosz (1999, 18) shares a similar view, that clock time “. . . imposes rather than extracts a unity and wholeness through homogenization and reduction”. In discussing concept of a mechanistic worldview (below), eco-feminist Carolyn Merchant (1990, 217) proposes the clock as a symbol of order, “. . . fundamental to the new value system of the modern world”.
5. For an explanation of the binomial system, see Frans Stafleu (1981, 23). The binomial taxonomy of species developed by Carl Linnaeus (1753) involved classification based on the characteristics of the plant itself without reference to its habitat.
6. Peter Haynes (1990, 222) traces Mandy Martin’s engagement with the Romantic and Sublime back to the mid-to-late 1980’s, when she “. . . made sustained investigations into that aspect of the Romantic landscape referred to as ‘the Sublime’, which had been enunciated most thoroughly by Edmund Burke in his A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, first published in (1757)”. The phenomenon evident in the Australian colonial artists Conrad Martens and Eugène von Guérard (see section: Ecology, Science and Art, below) – that radical change to the landscape, which we perceive from a twenty-first century perspective as destructive – is viewed as a reasonable, even awe-inspiring, consequence of progress in taming nature for human advantage, by some British artists of the period: for example, Joseph Wright of
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page 127 Derby and Joseph Mallord William Turner. Their industrialized landscapes appear almost as another facet of the natural Romantic Sublime in Wright’s oil painting of Arkwright’s Cotton Mills by Night, 1782–3 (Daniels 1999, 59) and Turner’s water colour painting of an industrial town, Leeds, 1816 (Herrmann 1986, 69). Tensions between industrialization, society and nature are also addressed in the poetry of William Blake (1757–1827) such as “London” and “The Chimney Sweeper” from Songs of Experience (Brunowski 1973, 26–59).
7. On Salvator Rosa’s influence on the Sublime in painting, see Barbara Dunn Holtz (1981); for further discussion of Salvator Rosa’s painting, see Jonathan Scott (1995, Chapters 3, 11–12). See the catalogue to the exhibition Apocalypse, edited by Martin Myrone (2011), for a review of John Martin’s painting in the context of contemporary practice and the nineteenth century. On the expeditions that informed Mandy Martin’s work, see Thomas Mitchell (1883).
8. Southam’s approach to landscape may be contrasted to Andy Goldsworthy’s process of making work within the landscape (commonly documented photographically, Goldsworthy [2008]). Goldsworthy appears to reconstruct the landscape in sculptural form, and in his own terms, whereas Southam will often depict rivers, different states of nature and the implicit histories of human activity in the landscape, with little overt comment and minimal intervention.
9. Southam, in an interview with Aaron Schuman (2005, 2), described Red River as the “. . . first resolved piece that helped me to understand how my work could become multilayered and I have been feeding off that ever since”.
10. John Wolseley engages with contemporary concerns for ecological sustainability from a position of knowledge of natural-history traditions: “Wolseley himself is happy to draw comparisons between his work and that of scientist-explorer-artists like Ludwig Becker. . . .” (Grishin, 2006, 51). On Becker, artist and naturalist with the Burke and Wills expedition 1860–61 see Marjorie Tipping (1979).
11. Sacha Grishin (2006), and the earlier Grishin (1998), are central texts for my research on John Wolseley. See also Robin Wallace Crabbe (1978) for John Wolseley’s early practice, and early reference to time in his work.
12. Eco-feminism broadly proposes a holistic worldview in opposition to an androcentric (i.e. male-centered) worldview, in which it perceives the cause of the Earth’s ecological problems (Plumwood, 1993, 173-4, 195-6). My research recognizes that this worldview may be relevant to the course of the human impact on the Brisbane River ecology, since the time of colonial settlement. In contrast, Deep Ecology shares a holistic worldview with eco-feminism, but sees the central cause of the world’s ecological problems as anthropocentric (i.e. human-centred) rather than androcentric, among other areas of difference. On the position and interrelation of these movements, see Arne Naess and George Sessions in Alan Drengson and Yuichi Inoue eds. (1995, 13–30, 49–63). Judith Plant (1989, 242–25) proposes “bioregionalism” as an area where Eco-feminism and
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page 128 Deep Ecology merge. On “bioregionalism”, see also Peter Berg (1978, 217), and Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein (1990, 155), and Val Plumwood (2002, 74–80).
13. Roderick Nash (1982, 85–95, 122–160) reviews changing attitudes to wilderness, and the philosophies of John Muir, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau. See Kenneth A. Kershaw (1969, 39) on the seminal work of Frederick Clements (1916) for information on plant succession, where the environment is modified in stages over time, as plant species colonise areas after fire, flood or other disturbances.
14. William Hastie (1993, xviii) cites Humboldt as referring to Kant as “the great philosopher”. Humboldt (1849, 465) considered landscape painting and gardens as reminders of nature in its absence, and he offered (1849, 373–427) a historical and cultural review of the study of nature, gardens, plant diversity and the physiognomy of different climatic zones. Pullen (2011, 114) sees this tendency at work in von Guérard’s painting as an expression of Humboldt’s view of nature’s interrelated whole.
15. Eco-feminist Val Plumwood (1993, 166–74) offers a different perception on the philosophy of Kant, whom she sees as advocating a rationalist worldview of holism that is “man centered”, with a “universalization” in its perception of nature and “earth others”. In Plumwood’s view, (1993, 169), while not everyone makes these assumptions about Kant, “. . . the construction of reason as oppositional to nature and its human and non- human representatives. . . is the key to the anthropocentrism of the Western tradition”.
16. For a catalogue essay by Peter Carter, for the exhibition Tracing the Wallace Line, Bendigo Art Gallery, see John Wolseley (2001). For a further example of Wolseley’s investigation into the interconnections between species, place and time see his exhibition catalogue (Wolseley 1996), which also includes a conversation between John Wolseley and environmentalist Tim Cadman.
17. Gablik (1997) extends the ideas from her earlier book through discussions with art critics, artists, philosophers, and writers; for example, with Carolyn Merchant (Gablik 1997, 226–246) in “Viewing the World as Process”.
18. On dualism, see Plumwood (1993, 41–68) and Plumwood (2002 100–22), where discussion from an eco-feminist perspective covers areas including dualisms and difference, and the key role of reason-nature dualism, and proposes ecological solutions through a non anthropocentic worldview and human-ecological relatedness.
19. Tamsin Kerr describes the aims of the Cooroora Institute in fostering connections between place, nature, makers and the community on the Institute’s website: http://www. cooroorainstitute.org/. Accessed 7 September 2012. For further discussion of art and eco- regionalism, see Tamsin Kerr (2008, 8).
20. See Ian Grant (2012, 126–27) for examples of his paintings, techniques and processes.
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page 129 21. For a survey of David Keeling’s painting, with reference to style and technique, see David Hansen (2007, 7–38). See Mary Knights (2003) for a review of Keeling’s 2003 exhibition Narrative, Sweet Narrative at the Bett Gallery, Hobart.
22. Modern concepts of the Sublime owe much to Edmund Burke, particularly A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757), and to an extent to Immanuel Kant’s The Critique of Judgment (1790). Both authors wrote extensively on the Sublime and the beautiful in fine art, a tradition reaching back as far as Longinus (Peri Hupsous, thought to have been written in the first century CE). For a survey of other authors in the history of writing on the Sublime, including John Denis (1704), David Hume (1739) and John Baille (1747), see James Boulton (1987, xviii– xix). The subject has continued to concern contemporary writers, including Jean-François Lyotard (1989), who approaches the Sublime from a Postmodern perspective.
23. The English Romantic painter Richard Wilson (1713–82) was influenced by the paintings of Aelbert Cuyp and Claude Lorrain; Richard Wilson subsequently influenced the work of both Turner and Constable. On Wilson, see William G. Constable (1953); on Romanticism and English landscape, see Peter Quenell (1970), Richard Darment (1986).
24. On the nature of the topographical landscapes of John Eyre and Major James Taylor Kerr, see Joan Kerr (1992, 249, 779); for those of J. W. Lewin, see Patricia McDonald and Barry Pearce (1988, 133, 136). Like Gould, J. W. Lewin also painted flora and fauna, in addition to his topographical landscapes. However, Lewin’s paintings were not scientific in intention, but illustrative of “exotic flora and fauna that symbolized the colony” (Pearce 1988, 134).
25. For Martens and the picturesque, see Elizabeth Ellis (1994, 19–26); on Martens’ paintings of The Viaducts on the Descent to the Lithgow Valley, 1872, and The Zig Zag, New South Wales, 1886, see Martin Terry (1984, 503–6), where he discusses Martens’ reference to the Claudean picturesque framing of the subject, and the influence of photographic images of the subject. On the ambivalence between natural destruction and the celebration of engineering achievement in Martens’ work, see section: Ecology, Science and Art, and note 6, above.
26. Irene Jenner (1978) presents a brief account of the Jenner family and Isaac Walter Jenner’s contribution to art in Queensland.
27. For discussion on Wolfhagen’s technical resources and his engagement with a range of styles including Romantic and traditional, see Peter Timms (2005, 7–40); for Constable’s influence on Wolfhagen’s painting, see Deborah Malor (2004, 1). On Dyer’s paintings, where he conveys the impact of mining, for example Pyrite Reflections, King River, 1995 and Pollution, King River, 1995, see Victor Stafford (2008, 70–72).
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page 130 28. I selected Claybord because of the organic and smooth white surface properties of kaolin, which reflects back the brilliance of colour applied to the surface. Claybord is an American brand name: the material consists of a hardboard substrate with compacted white kaolin as a surface coating. For more information, see the brand name Ampersand: www.amperstandart.com/claybord.html. Accessed 11 October 2012.
29. For information on Callum Innes’ painting techniques, see Fiona Bradley and Elizabeth McLean (2006, 17–20).
30. Coke (Coca-Cola™) bottles, being typical flotsam and jetsam found in the littoral zone of the Brisbane River, were selected to symbolize the discarded debris seen in the river overall.
31. His process of incorporating natural history illustrations into a layered space with multiple views indicates the complexity of Wolseley’s approach. In the painting Upside- down Flowers Leptosema chambersii, he relied upon the expertise of a botanist friend, Peter Latz, in locating the rare plant. This may be seen to parallel the influence of the natural history journals of Ludwig Becker on Wolseley’s work, recorded above, note 11.
32. Photography has occupied an essential place in my research to document the Brisbane River, and in later work as a means to record the process of my work. The photograph is used to capture snapshot views that in combination with memory and imagination inform my paintings and studio work. In some work, like the River with Quadrat series, the photograph is the only record of the ephemeral art process. Photography therefore has a symbiotic role within my practice.
33. Christopher Heathcote et al. (2003) provide a survey of the art and life of Yvonne Audette, including illustrations of Audette’s evolving practice and her concern for “the essentially mystical nature of art as a sign” (2003, 169).
34. The tidal flow referenced in the River Story paintings has been informed by my own observation, by ecological records that include seasonal tide and turbidity (sediment load) charts, and topographic views of the Brisbane River in Eva G. Abal, Stuart E. Bunn and William C. Dennison (2005, 80–8), which supplies a comprehensive ecological reference for the Brisbane River and catchment; and by water flow patterns discussed and illustrated in Andreas Wilkens, Michael Jacobi, and Wolfram Schwenk (2005, 30, 40, 43).
35. The recent death of catfish at Lowood in the upper Brisbane River, reported in the Brisbane Times, adds to concerns about river water quality and species health (Tony Moore 2012); parasites and fungus are seen as the most likely cause of the death of the fish.
36. Cartesian dualism was developed by René Descartes (1596–1650), who proposes (Descartes 1649) that the body is like a machine and that the mind (soul) and body are separate. His philosophy promoted a rationalist and separatist worldview that my research questions. For a summary of Cartesian dualism, see Gordon Baker and Katherine J Morris
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page 131 (1996, 11–21). Susan Bordo, cited in Lawrence Cahoone (1996, 640), offers an eco- feminist view on the Cartesian reconstruction of the medieval and renaissance worldview, which gave rise to a rational and objective position of separateness from nature.
37. The role of the horizon line is also addressed by Tasmanian artist Philip Wolfhagen, according to Alex Speed (2011, 2), who states that “On occasion he [Wolfhagen] interposes a reference point for the viewer by using slightly misaligned panels to act as a split horizon: a postmodern device of reminding the viewer they are looking at a representation”: Wolfhagen places individual panels together adjacently and manipulates the vertical edge where the two images meet.
38. For further examples of Arthur Boyd’s paintings on copper, see Janet McKenzie (2000, 172–3) and Gavin Wilson (2001, 32). Boyd’s series of thirty paintings on copper (including River with Carcass, 1976), were produced over twelve-to-eighteen months, “[recording] different parts of the Shoalhaven River and the different effects of time and season on the landscape,” (McKenzie 2000, 174–5). While my work shares with Boyd an interest in seasonal and circadian cycles of a specific river, Boyd’s paintings are stylistically topographical, and the copper ground is prepared by a traditional technique, for the advantage of surface smoothness in rendering detail. Conceptually, my paintings on copper are fundamentally different from Boyd’s, in that they carry reference to mining and alchemy, water contamination, and damaged ecology and human structures in the wake of the 2011 flood, to convey the course of human impact on the Brisbane River ecology. Boyd’s paintings on copper demonstrate no overt commentary upon environmental damage, although his intense and very public stand on issues concerning the environment and ecology is a matter of record.
39. There is a long tradition of depicting zoological and botanical species in art and science, too extensive to survey here. Especially in eighteenth and nineteenth-century art, the genre played an important role in developing the taxonomy of species and supporting colonial projects. Gould illustrated both botanical and zoological species in isolation from their environment, as well as being a painter of landscapes (see Darby 1980, 92-101), and the intrepid Australian artist Marian Ellis Rowan (1848–1922; see Margaret Hazzard 1984) produced botanical illustrations of species, sometimes represented in their natural setting, sometimes against a plain ground. In the case of botanical illustration, specimens included in one plate frequently appear in different scales and seasonal views, and dissected to reveal seeds and the structure of flowers – all illustrated and described in isolation from the habitat in which they are found. Such work printed for a general audience was often in full colour (for example, Maiden 1895); for more purely scientific reference, the artwork was usually carried out in black and white line drawing (for example, Maiden 1907). Joseph Bank’s Florilegium (compiled while accompanying James Cook’s voyage around the world: see Hank Ebes 1988) included illustrations by Sydney Parkinson that were engraved onto copper plates in the early 1800s (see Denis J. Carr 1983), but not printed as a whole publication until the twentieth century, indicating the continuing persistence of the acceptability of a traditional illustrative style still not uncommon in modern publications (for example, see Alexander S. George, ed. 1984 6, illustrating a
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page 132 mangrove species). The style is current more recently in the work of Australian David Mackay, reinterpreted to draw attention to nature’s fragility and ecological concerns (http://www.davidmackay.com.au/about. Accessed 16 October, 2012). On Mackay, see also Shirley Sherwood (2008, 252).
40. The exhibition “The River: A History of Brisbane” at the Museum of Brisbane (opening in April 2013) will “use the epic Brisbane River as both a physical and metaphorical focus for exploring a history of this city, while showcasing artworks and objects from the City of Brisbane Collection” (Museum of Brisbane, “Exhibition Openings”, 2012, 16). In an e-mail message to the author, 29 October, 2012, Museum Director Peter Denham described Beauty as one of the themes of the exhibition; a commissioned film on this theme will look at all of the River from this perspective, to be projected at large scale in one of the pavilions. Landscape, Social History, Industry, Settlement and Aboriginal Presence are themes that will also be covered. In response to the enquiry, what audience the exhibition can be expected to engage over the duration of the three-year exhibition, he replied that the exhibition hoped to interest an audience of all ages, as there will be a strong educational focus; a lowest figure of 150,000 visitors per year is anticipated.
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PICTURE APPENDIX THE BRISBANE RIVER: ART, ECOLOGY AND PERCEPTION The Webb Gallery, Queensland College of Art, South Brisbane
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